


Her Bodyguard

by Ultra



Series: Her Bodyguard/Brave New World [1]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Angst, Bodyguard, Bodyguard Romance, Brother-Sister Relationships, Character Development, Developing Relationship, Drama, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family Dynamics, Friendship/Love, Older Man/Younger Woman, On the Run, Pre-Season/Series 01, Protectiveness, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2019-08-08 12:39:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 55,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16429577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: AU Pre-Series. Jayne might be an unlikely hero, but when he comes to the aid of a damsel in distress on Osiris, it looks as if it may change the whole course of his life.





	1. Chapter 1

On a core planet such as Osiris, there were very few people that one could call undesirable, and yet it was always necessary for a certain number of poor and unfortunates to exist in such a place. Every rich man, reputable or otherwise, required servants and workers and all. Honourable men and women, in spite of their lowly birth, that did as they were told for the pittance they were often paid.

Jayne Cobb was neither a rich man nor an honourable worker. For all intents and purpose he was a mercenary, hired by like-minded folk with more cash than he had, to track down the enemy, rob him blind or shoot him dead, it was all the same to such a man as Jayne. Not that he wasn’t a decent kinda man, he had his standards, sure enough. He didn’t expect to get sexed less he paid for it, and he didn’t shoot an unarmed man looking to do him no harm. Lived by a code, such as it was, with rules and conscience enough instilled in him by his Ma.

This particular day, Jayne had come to find himself wandering alone in a marketplace meant for only the lowliest of folk in town. Many a cook or maid from some fancy estate or other was bustlin’ about, looking to get the very best food and finery for their masters and mistresses. Jayne paid no mind to the most of them, he had his target to be looking out for.

Marco had a pretty good description of the guy he wanted tracked. Seems the hwun dahn in question had pulled a second-storey with Jayne’s new boss a while back, and made off with more’n his share. Now it was up to him to get a bead on this guy, figure out where he was staying and how much of the cash he still had, then come back at nightfall, take the idiot for all he was worth. Jayne would get his share, seven percent straight off the top. Course seven percent of nothing was nothing itself, so he had to keep his eye on the target.

Only trouble was, the marketplace had its distractions, and one in particular caught Jayne Cobb’s eye. She didn’t belong in such a place, that much was all kinds of obvious. She was a pretty girl, make no mistake, but light years from the kind Jayne paid for their services come pay day. Long dark hair and big brown eyes a man could lose himself in, she was a beauty in the making. Little on the young side for Jayne maybe, but he weren’t always so fussy, so long as a woman was of age.

Turning his eyes back to the target, Jayne cursed under his breath when he realised he lost sight of him. Took a moments searching to find him again, and a lot of covering to ensure he weren’t spotted looking. He picked up some book he couldn’t read if’n he tried from the nearest stall, turned it over in his hands and flipped the pages like he knew what it was all about.

“No!” A sudden shout to his left made him turn fast from where he ought to have been looking.

Same girl from before was kickin’ up a fuss and Jayne couldn’t think for a minute she was quibbling on prices. She weren’t no rich family’s scullery maid nor nothin’, more like a daughter or niece maybe. Truth be said, she most like shouldn’t even be in a place like this, was why she stood out so gorram much and to the wrong kinds of people.

Jayne weren’t altogether surprised to see some feh feh pi goh playin’ around with the girl. Whether he was after her purse or her virtues, the merc couldn’t tell, least not until the ass started dragging the poor girl around the side of the nearest building. Not a person came running to her rescue and though Jayne knew he had a job to do here, no way in hell he could live with himself knowing he let some f'n zse take advantage of some sweet little girl, no matter how much cash or whatever she got. ‘Sides the after thought came fast that if he saved her she could be mighty grateful, and whatever form that gratitude took, Jayne would be glad enough to accept it.

Dropping the book he’d been holding right back where it came from, the mercenary darted through the crowd, quick like a cat in spite of the size of him. He was behind the asshole in a second, tapping him on the shoulder so he spun around fast. Jayne’s fist met the idiots chin with a sickening thud, making him leave go of the terrified girl at least, but apparently there was no way he was goin’ down without a fight.

The poor young woman kept back against the wall as she watched her saviour wail on the one who would do her harm. One minute she had been calmly sorting through pretty glass beads at a nearby stall, the next this young man had grabbed a hold of her and dragged her here, trying to touch her in ways she didn’t want at all. She wished she had never told her brother she would be okay if he left her alone a minute, wished she had been paying more attention to what was going on around her, wished her mind worked as well as it used to...

“You don’t stay down, you gorram asshole, I’m gonna make sure you never get up again!” said Jayne firmly as he slammed the bad guys head into the dust one more time.

Whether he was able to get up or not, the guy didn’t bother trying. Clearly the larger man’s warning had sunk in and he was happy to stay down and out of trouble. Here he was thinkin’ he was gonna score himself some easy piece of trim, but it was not to be.

“You okay?” asked Jayne as he turned to the young woman he had just saved, him breathin’ heavy from his fight, and her still doing the same from fear and panic.

“She will survive.” The girl nodded her head. “Thank you.”

“River! River!” the calling of what appeared to be the girl’s name in a male voice made both her and Jayne turn around fast.

A young man dressed up just as fancy as her, if not more so, suddenly appeared, grabbing at the poor girl and hugging her tight. He was rambling something terrible about losing her and being so sorry, Jayne weren’t sure whether he was boyfriend, brother, or what, but he seemed gorram panicked by the fact something might’ve happened to the girl.

“She is fine, Simon,” she promised, her head against his shoulder. “She is fine.”

“What did you do to her, you animal?!” the rich guy suddenly exploded, making Jayne look wide-eyed at him.

“Hey, I never...!” he started to protest, but apparently didn’t need to as the young woman who he had just learned was called River jumped to his defence.

“He saved her, Simon,” she said, pulling out of her brother’s embrace to move over to Jayne’s side, her hand upon his arm. “He was brave, like a fairytale knight. Saved the damsel in distress.” She smiled almost dreamily up at him, giving him the strangest uncomfortableness inside.

There was no evidence now that anyone else had been here, since the low life Jayne had beaten to a bloody pulp had almost literally slithered away on his belly moments before. Jayne had nothing to prove he’d played unlikely hero here. Still, this dandy named Simon seemed to believe what River was tellin’ him, thank the Lord.

“Really?” he said, looking not so much unimpressed as baffled.

Jayne didn’t blame the guy much, weren’t exactly looking like a big damn hero in his camo gear, not havin’ had a decent shower in a couple of days and all. Still, didn’t change the fact he’d done what the girl said, saved her from some ri shao gou shi bing that wanted to do her harm.

“Er, thank you,” said Simon at length, not sure whether he was more baffled by this rough looking ape of a man being River’s saviour or the fact she was gazing up at him like he was some kind of God. “For saving my sister.” He smiled, genuine in his gratitude even if it did come with a healthy dose of confusion and near-disbelief.

“Sister, huh?” said Jayne, repressing a leer if only ‘cause Simon looked like he weren’t adverse to having him arrested for somethin’ whether he saved his mei mei or not. “Weren’t nothin’ much.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Just did what any fella’d do.”

“Clearly that’s untrue.” The rich guy shook his head as he took River’s hand and pulled her away from Jayne a little. “Nobody else is here, nobody came to River’s rescue but you. That makes you quite the hero, I would say,” he said, still unsure of his own words.

The truth of the matter was, this man could never have been described as looking particularly noble or heroic, a scruffy nerf herder might be nearer the mark. Still, as eccentric as River was prone to being, Simon didn’t doubt for a moment that what this man had done was worth his gratitude, if she said so. His mei mei was honest as the day was long, and always a good judge of character.

“Should be rewarded, Simon,” she said as she took hold of her dear brothers arm.

Jayne tried his best not to react to the word ‘reward’ but such a thing was not easy. The mercenary was not exactly drowning in riches, far from it in fact, despite his seven percent deal with Marco.

“A reward?” asked Simon of his sister, a little uncertain as to such a thing being necessary at such a moment, though he would of course pay any price for his sister’s safety...

“Might’ve kept him from important business,” said River, with a glint in her eye as she looked to Jayne that made his blood run cold.

It was almost as if she knew what his business really was here, not that there was any way she could, but it made him wonder a minute, and not so much bother to listen when Simon started up talking again.

“Business?” he echoed River’s words. “Oh, yes, um... we’ve inconvenienced you, I’m sure,” he realised aloud. “I don’t really carry cash on my person, I’m sure you see why,” he said with a knowing look, “but would you like to accompany us to our home, Mr...?”

“Cobb,” said Jayne when he suddenly realised he was being talked at. “Jayne Cobb,” he said with a nod of his head.

River smiled, leaning her head onto Simon’s shoulder, still eyeing her saviour in the oddest way.

“Man called Jayne,” she said softly, in such a way as the man in question knew not how to take it.

Honest to goodness, he thought it better he didn’t take it in no way right now, else get himself into trouble afore he ever got this reward that was being talked on.

“Mr Cobb,” Simon began again, “if you would accompany us back to our home, I shall see to it you are generously rewarded for your kindness to my sister.” He smiled, his arm around River’s shoulders as he hugged her close to him.

The siblings set off walking, expecting Jayne to follow. He didn’t at first, instead his eyes sought out the man he’d come here to find in the first place. The little rat went scurrying from sight almost just as quick as Jayne could lay eyes on him, but it’d be just shiny. He was about to get his fair share o’ coin for his days work, no matter what, thanks to these two fancy folk he was followin’.

“Ain’t gonna argue with that,” he muttered to hismelf as he strode along behind the pair, towards the fancier side of town.

* * *

“It seems you did a great service to my daughter, Mr Cobb,” said Gabriel Tam as he came face to face with the unsavoury looking man waiting in the foyer of the over-sized town house.

Simon had explained everything to his father and asked that Jayne be given a monetary reward for his trouble. It wasn’t as if the Tams could not afford such a trifle as would be a great fortune to such a man as Cobb, but Gabriel wasn’t exactly forthcoming with such things. Fortunately, he would rather not make enemies with any person who had come too close to his daughter of late. She had an oddness about her since the Academy that it would be best the general public knew nothing of. Recompense for any trouble caused would doubtless ensure men of dishonour such as Jayne Cobb keep their silence.

“Just did what any other fella’d do, I guess.” He shrugged, modest to a point as he added. “Not that any other fella did.”

“Quite so.” Mr Tam nodded once, before turning to his baby girl who hovered in the nearby doorway, behind her brother. “River, bao-bei,” he called her over, taking her chin in his hand. “You must be more careful when you go out, and your brother ought to have taken better care,” he said in a much sterner tone as he turned a little to glare Simon’s way, “but things have worked out this time.” He found a tight smile as he gestured for River to back off some and gave his attention back to Jayne. “Thank you, Mr Cobb,” he said, as genuinely as he could, dropping a leather pouch into the grubby man’s waiting hand. “For your trouble,” he said, his expression turning into distaste as Jayne immediately opened the bag up wide to see what his reward consisted of - more than he ever thought.

“Wuo duh tian ah!” he muttered, before shoving the pouch of cash deep into his pocket and looking Mr Tam in the eye. “Thank you, sir. Most obliged to ya,” he said with some kind of mock-salute as he backed up a couple of steps towards the door.

Jayne was mindful of being in a place like this too long. Weren’t exactly where he belonged and now he had his cash, he’d sooner get out before any kinda trouble started. Mr Tam walked away easy enough but Simon seemed to want to get his sister by his side first. She weren’t in no mood for goin’ without a goodbye or some such as she come running at Jayne, catching him with her hand on his shoulder afore he cleared the front door.

“You are her hero,” she said with a giddy kind of a smile, that gave way to something much more sad when Simon called for her then.

Jayne weren’t so sure what to make of her gratitude or the change in her from one second to the next. She was pretty as a picture, but if he had to guess it, maybe not so much right in the head.

“Weren’t nothin’ to it,” he told her with a shrug, before finally leaving.

Still, River weren’t eager to be taken away from here. Leaning out around the front door, she watched the retreating form of her saviour until he had almost all but disappeared from her view.

“He will return.” She smiled, much more sure of that than Jayne would ever have imagined, but then he couldn’t hear her at such a distance, so it really didn’t matter.


	2. Chapter 2

“What do I pay you for, Jayne Cobb, you tell me?” asked his boss, Marco, as he was forced to face the man and tell him his work for the day had gone south.

Given the job of tracking a man, as was often his work, Jayne had failed terribly having lost said man in the market place on Osiris this morning. ‘Course, Marco weren’t lettin’ him get to the real explanation of what happened, he only heard what he wanted to hear which was the part where things had gone wrong.

“Give me two seconds to tell ya what happened, instead of lettin’ your tongue rattle around in your head that way, might find out I got somethin’ just as good as your fella you wanted huntin’ down!” yelled Jayne, quite angry at this guy for daring to question his ability to do his job, as well as bein’ kinda mad at his ownself for screwing up too.

“What you gotta say, Cobb?” said Marco then, looking equal parts pissed and intrigued somehow. “C’mon, spit it out!” he urged him.

“This is what I got,” he said simply, tossing the pouch of money Gabriel Tam had given him onto the table between them. “More’n you figured on me comin’ back here with today, ain’t it?” he challenged his boss to argue, knowing that he couldn’t.

Marco looked at least a little impressed as he opened up the leather bag and tipped out a whole load of coins into his hand. Jayne watched him count them all, tryin’ not to grin and give himself away. There was a few pieces missin’ from that bag, tucked away in a pocket on his ownself where nobody weren’t gonna find. Sure’n he knew people thought he was dumb, maybe woulda thought givin’ Marco any share of his coin was stupid enough, but Jayne knew he was gonna make more in the long run workin’ for this hwun dahn. Givin’ him this cash, or most of it, proved he had a good enough reason for not doin’ the job he was meant to do today, guaranteed his employment some, and let him keep some of that cash he’d earned savin’ the damsel in distress from trouble.

“You been freelancin’, Cobb?” asked Marco, trying not to look too impressed with the other man’s surprise loot.

“Nah, ain’t even like that.” Jayne shook his head. “Saw me an opportunity and took it is all.” He shrugged, deciding he didn’t have no need to tell Marco no more than that about what he done.

Chances were good that the next plan’d be to use the connection to rob the folks done gave him this cash, and that didn’t sit right with Jayne. Sure’n he could justify a lot o’ crime in his life, from robbin’ off folks to puttin’ a bullet in a man, but he lived by a code in his own way. Them Tams was righteous enough, had more’n what they needed by way of coin and fancy fripperies. Still, they seemed decent enough for rich folk, paid him for the service he done ‘em and didn’t look down their nose too much when he was stood in their front parlour and all.

Jayne didn’t have a wish to be pullin’ no second storey at their place and he weren’t about to give Marco no reason to want to neither. They landed on this gorram Core planet to do some specific business and that was what they’d do, then get gone afore any more trouble kicked off. Chances were good he’d never see hide nor hair of them Tams again, not given the decidedly non-fancy places people like Jayne hung around and all. Course fate maybe had different plans for him, he just didn’t know it yet.

* * *

“I wonder how she’ll cope, Gabriel?” asked Regan as she poured over the letter from the Academy, asking that River return for the new year of schooling.

It was many months now since she had been removed from the place, having begun attendance just before her fifteenth birthday. She had been there one full school year and just a term of the next before things had seemed wrong somehow. Simon had been insistent that River was not happy, that her letters home made no sense and that the riddles within were not just some happy childhood game anymore. He believed she was in trouble, in distress, and must be removed from the Academy immediately.

Both parents tried to reassure him but then Regan herself began to worry about her little girl. It had seemed strange that the teens at the Academy were never allowed home, even for the holidays or one vacation a year.

When River was removed from the school, Gabriel had promised it was a temporary situation and made his excuses to the Alliance men and women who ran the school. Having seen the state of his daughter on her return home, it made him wonder if he ever should have sent her away. Unfortunately, his own feelings and reputation seemed to outweigh the importance of his daughter and Gabriel was now regretting his choice to bring River home. Her behaviour was erratic at best. She had violent mood swings and near-psychotic episodes that the family and staff of the house had trouble hiding from the world at large. If her state were to become public knowledge, it would make the family look bad, and that Mr Tam would not stand for.

“There simply is no choice, Regan,” he told his wife. “She must go to a school and finish out her education,” he said with insistence as he stood near the fireplace, leaning against the mantle. “Besides which, there is nothing more that we can do for her condition. River needs to be where specialists can help her. Teachers and doctors...”

“But if it was being away from us, away from here, that caused her problems,” his wife considered.

“The Alliance Academy was... _is_ a good school,” he corrected himself. “Perhaps River might not be as suited to their program as we thought but I cannot believe her condition is their doing.” He shook his head as he turned to face his wife, and she continued to scroll through information displayed via the interactive screen in the coffee table.

“I’m sure you’re right.” She nodded. “But there must be another school that would take her...” she said as she sighed and flipped through the options, her husband coming to peer over her shoulder at the same text and pictures they’d been looking through for a while now, still unsure as to the right decision to make.

Outside the door, River was sat on the stairs. She had been listening in, her poor heart breaking at what she heard. Mother and father had never cared so much for her as for Simon, though she had thought them wonderful when they agreed she might attend the Alliance Academy. She had not known then what she did now, how they would hurt and use her. She winced and shuddered violently at the very thought of it, and immediately pushed the memories aside for fear of how she might react if she did not. She lost control so often, and she knew she was doing it, and yet she could not help it, could not find a way to stop, just as she could not stop the tears that came now.

“River?” she heard her brother speak softly behind her as he came to sit at her side. “River, what’s going on?” he asked but she only shook her head, hiding her tear-stained face in his shoulder as he put his arm around her and pulled her close.

She was distraught, that much was obvious, but honestly Simon wasn’t sure if something had happened to her now or if she was just imagining it or remembering it. Everything in her mind seemed so muddled since the Academy, he was only grateful his parents had eventually listened when he told them something was wrong and removed her from that place.

“Sending me back,” he heard then, as if River had read his mind, a thing she so often seemed as if she might be capable of. “Want me to go, go away, anywhere but here,” she cried, her words were muffled against his shirt but clear enough that Simon did understand.

Anger was not something Simon often experienced. He was even-tempered at best, usually passive in most situations, but where River was concerned he had the capacity for rage. When his sister was in trouble, in danger, upset or scared, then he would lose his temper spectacularly if needed. She mattered so much to him, and he would not stand for anyone hurting her in any way, not even their parents.

“Simon, don’t!” River called after him as he was up on his feet in a second and rushing to the door behind which his parents were sat, fuming as he burst in to face them.

“You cannot send River back to that place!” he said definitely. “You can’t send her away from her home, she won’t survive!” he told them, as the girl herself ran away up to her room, hands over her ears as she chattered madly to herself about everything being too loud and too much and too crowded.

“You will keep a civil tongue in your head, young man!” Gabriel snapped at his son. “What we choose for your sisters future is none of your concern,” he told him, pointing an angry finger at the boy who would dare to defy him.

“How can you say that?” Simon snapped back, pulling himself up to his full height, determined to be seen as much as a man of this house now as his father. “She’s my little sister, and she has been through hell because of the last choice you made for her!” he shouted angrily.

“Simon, I’m warning you...” his father countered, fire flashing in his eyes that made his son move back a step, though he was still determined in making his point.

“Sweetheart,” said Regan kindly, taking hold of Simon’s arm and trying to be calm and rational amongst all this hot-headedess. “River needs care all of the time,” she explained, as Simon finally turned his full attention to her. “Your father and I cannot be here constantly, and you’ll be leaving for your internship at St Lucy’s in a couple of weeks-”

“Then I won’t go,” he interrupted turning determined eyes from his mother to his father, equally as angry at both of them right now for what they were trying to do.

“Don’t be ridiculous, boy,” Gabriel snapped, using the word only to make his son feel all the smaller he presumed. “This is your career, your life we’re talking about.”

“Fine!” Simon agreed, knowing it was the most impractical thing for him to not go to the hospital on Ariel as planned, beside which it would only result in River feeling terribly guilty on top of everything else. “But River can still stay here at home. I’ve worked closely with her maid, Nancy. River trusts her completely and Nancy’s not afraid of her outbursts. I’ve taught her how to administer the drugs she might need,” he explained in vain, knowing as his father turned away from him that he didn’t want to listen. “It can work.”

“I really think you’re seeing this whole thing through rose-tinted spectacles, Simon,” his father told him. “Besides which, River needs more than a semi-competent nurse or a baby-sitter,” he said with a sigh borne out of exasperation with this whole situation, having to find so much anger in him all the time just to cope. “After yesterday’s events it’s quite clear she needs a bodyguard at the very least,” he said with a look, though Simon heard no tone and saw no expression to make him think his father was not being entirely literal.

“Then we’ll hire one for her,” he said simply as Gabriel slumped down into his armchair very briefly, immediately alert again in a second as he realised what Simon had said.

“Run-tse duh fwo-tzoo...” He shook his head. “Are you out of your mind?” he asked his question genuinely, because to him it was starting to seem as if Simon was really becoming as unhinged as River so often seemed.

“No,” said firmly. “I’ll help pay for one,” he explained, looking between his parents. “In fact, in a few months when I’ve been working a while on Ariel, I’ll pay completely,” he insisted. “This place must be crawling with men that fit the bill, who would do anything when offered enough money,” he said simply, even as his father’s expression grew amused at what he considered lunacy. “The man from yesterday that saved River’s life. Er, Cobb. Jayne Cobb.” Simon had to think a moment before the name would come. “I’m sure he’d do it.”

“I’m sure he would, Simon,” his mother agreed, “but how do we know we could trust this man with our baby girl’s safety?”

“River trusted him, she told me as much,” he insisted, pleading with his eyes for Regan to understand, the more likely of the two to listen to him as always. “Since the Academy you know she trusts almost no-one, not even the staff here that have known her since she was a child,” he went on to explain. “That has to mean something. Besides, he didn’t know he was even getting paid when he saved her,” he told Gabriel now, who was beginning to look thoughtful and perhaps even agreeable to the idea. “that stands in his favour,” said Simon with as much determination as ever when it came to what was best for his mei mei.

Regan looked from her son to her husband as Gabriel mulled over the proposal laid out before him. The likelihood was that hiring such a person to watch over his daughter would prove less expensive than sending her to a private school, and she certainly could not attend anywhere public where others might see her behaviour that was odd at best and completely unhinged at worst. Staying at the family home with a man to protect her from harm and servants to see to every other need, it did make sense and would mean River gave no inconvenience to her parents who wished to travel and socialise, nor her brother whose career had to come first, at least in Gabriel’s eyes.

“Given the state of this Jayne Cobb it seems likely he’d go above and beyond the call of duty if money was on the table,” he said with consideration, getting up from his chair and going over to the panel on the wall.

The buzzer sounded and in a moment a servant came scurrying in to receive whatever orders the master would give her.

“Go into town and find me the man who was here yesterday, this Jayne Cobb person,” he told the maid with a wave of his hand. “Tell him I want to see him, right now.”


	3. Chapter 3

Jayne Cobb never thought he’d find himself back here again. Far as he knew he’d be off this dumb Core planet in a couple of days, out in the black doin’ what he did best, tracking down fellas and putting holes in them if needs be. Last place he expected to be finding himself was in the main foyer of this fancy town house belonging to the Tam family. Made him just a little nervous, though he didn’t show it. Brought here once to be paid for a service he done for the young lady of the house or whatever she was, now here he was back again the very next day, wondering if Mr Tam and gone and changed his mind, wanted his money back maybe. No telling what tales the girl spun after he left, decided she was gonna say he was the bad guy in what happened or whatever. She seemed somewhat whimsical in the brainpan that was for sure, though brains weren’t exactly what Jayne looked for in a woman anyhow. Probably best he didn’t think on that too much right now though, instead he cast his eyes to the walls lined with captures of many a place the family had most like visited and many a person from some great family tree of lords and ladies that meant next to nothin’ to a guy from the rim like Jayne.

“Ah, Mr Cobb,” a voice behind him turned him around fast and the mercenary stood himself straight and tried to look somewhat respectable as Gabriel Tam came at him, holding out a hand to shake his own.

“You wanted to see me, Mr Tam,” he said, mindful of his manners like his Ma had taught him, not least ‘cause he was a little cautious as to what this meeting was all about.

“Yes, indeed I did.” The other man nodded, beckoning for him to follow him through a door to the right that led into a home office area, as richly furnished and fanciful as the entrance-way had been.

Jayne’s eyes were everywhere as he took it all in, from the thick carpet beneath his boots, to flashing screens upon the walls that he guessed the gentleman used for his business, a million miles from the kind of work he was used to his ownself. His being distracted by everything in the room led to Mr Tam watching him with some fascination. He did not converse with this kind of person on a regular basis. Butlers, maids, and usual security staff were used to working in larger houses and being surrounded by finery the like of which they would never possess themselves. Clearly this was quite the foreign land to Jayne Cobb, and Gabriel wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse about the offer he was about to make him.

“Please take a seat, Mr Cobb,” he encouraged the man, finally succeeding in getting his attention and the pair sat down either side of the fine glass-topped desk with a vid screen fitted seamlessly into it. “Now, I suppose you’re wondering why I asked you to come here.” He smiled, though Jayne did not. “As you will have noted when you met my daughter, River, she is not... she has been through some trauma which has left her unable to properly take care of herself,” he explained, unsure how he felt about the fact Jayne’s expression barely shifted the whole time. “The fact of the matter is, we cannot allow her to go out alone or be left in the house by herself without supervision, someone to take care of her.”

“Ain’t you got a whole house o’ servants and such for just that reason?” asked Jayne, looking a little confused as to what any of this had to do with him.

“The butlers and maids have particular duties, and one of them is assigned to taking care of River’s general needs.” He nodded his head, steepling his fingers as he leaned back in his large leather chair. “Unfortunately, she would be of little or no use if River got herself into trouble, which as you saw yesterday she is prone to doing when she goes wandering where she should not.” He sighed heavily, quite despairing of his daughters odd behaviour that so often seemed uncontrollable. “Now I do have security staff I could send out with River, but they are uniformed and well known in town. Besides which, she does not care for their presence, I’m afraid they frighten her.”

By this time, the cogs was turning in Jayne Cobb’s head enough that he was just starting to figure on what this fancy fella wanted him for. Seemed to him this little moon-brained daughter of his needed some kind of bodyguard, and that for some reason Mr Tam had decided he might be just the man for the job. No sooner had he thought of this and quickly dismissed it as being the stupidest plan he ever heard, words come spilling out of Mr Tam’s mouth to prove Jayne had been right after all.

“Mr Cobb, assuming you are not currently in the employ of anyone in particular and are free to do so, I wonder if you might consider allowing my family to hire you as personal protection for River?”

* * *

“So, you understand what I’m telling you, River?” said Simon as he sat on the edge of her bed with her, his arm around her shoulders.

“She is not stupid, Simon,” she told him with a roll of her eyes. “Genius, child prodigy, remember?”

“Of course.” Her brother smiled a moment, before turning serious again. “But this is important. It matters that you understand what we’re doing here,” he told her, glad she seemed to be having a fairly lucid day today

When they had spoken of this the night before, she had been so upset over everything that had happened. Between the attack in the marketplace and their parents threatening to send her away again, she hadn’t exactly been fit to talk rationally to. Though she had seemed happy enough and entirely relieved when Simon gave her the news she might be able to stay home, he worried she did not fully take in the conditions of the situation. Now, he hoped she was listening to his words.

“Nancy as nurse, Jayne-man as security,” River repeated in her own way what Simon had already told her. “Simon as Doctor far away,” she added her voice cracking just a little as she looked at him, swallowing down a lump in her throat. “But he will come back?” she said, more of a question than a statement as her lip quivered, making her look so much like a child more than the young woman she ought to be becoming at seventeen years old.

“Of course I’m coming back, mei mei,” Simon promised her, pulling her to him and hugging her tight. “You are my special little sister and I love you so much. I would never leave you for long. I wouldn’t leave at all if I could help it but-”

“But is necessary,” said River, sniffing back tears and forcing herself to be strong as she pulled away from him. “He will be a great revered doctor, and she will be proud to call him her guh-guh.” She smiled a watery smile, meaning what she said even if it did hurt to know she had to live without Simon for a while.

Being allowed to stay at the house was at least an advantage. The thought of going back to the Academy, of being sent away to any school again made a cold shudder run straight through her delicate body. Staying was better, not perfect but better. Mother and father didn’t care as they should, but Nancy was kind and gentle, desperate to be of help. All River needed now was a knight in shining armour, and he had been found yesterday.

When Jayne Cobb came to her rescue, he did not look like a fairytale prince or similar, and yet when River stood near to him she felt the goodness of his heart radiating warm as the sun on her skin. Inside the steel outer that grimaced and growled, there was a velvet centre of golden honey. A good man, she was certain, in spite of what he showed the world, in spite of some things he had done to the contrary...

“River?” her brother called her name, jostling her shoulder slightly as she seemed to drift off into an odd daze as was often her way.

“He’s here.” She smiled, turning her blank eyes now to focus on Simon’s face.

He opened his mouth to speak, to ask who she meant or how she knew perhaps, but was never given the chance as a light tap on the door was followed by Nancy entering the room with a barely concealed grin on her lips.

“Miss River.” She bobbed into a curtsey as was appropriate. “Your father wishes your presence downstairs to meet with our newest member of staff,” she was practically giggling with delight into her words at the thought of the well-built and ruggedly handsome man that waited on the ground floor.

Though Simon could not understand at all what had gotten the maid so excited, he followed on dutifully behind River as she danced over to the door and hurried down the stairs.

* * *

Jayne couldn’t believe he was doing this, as he stood at the bottom of a long winding staircase in the main foyer of the Tam family’s town house. Sure’n he had to be crazy for agreeing to this scheme but Gabriel Tam didn’t leave him with much of a choice. It was an easy enough job, steady paid work that meant he could sent home a regular amount to his Ma and all, and that he couldn’t say no to. Besides, when Mr Tam had handed over a piece of paper with the figure Jayne was to receive for his work, he was sure that had to be a months pay written right there in front of him, til Tam spoke up and called it a weeks wage!

They paid well on these fancy Core planets, that Jayne knew, but he never imagined anything with so many figures in it. He weren’t complaining though and all but bit the man’s hand off just as soon as he knew what the job entailed. Seemed he just had to watch the girl they called River, keep her outta harms way, most especially when she wanted to go out wanderin’ and such. In return, he got bed and board and a wage the size of which he never thought of getting for anything, much less somethin’ legal. Yep, Jayne Cobb was happy with the terms, ‘cept for one thing.

“How you know you can trust me?” he asked seriously. “I mean, I ain’t sayin’ you can’t, just wonderin’. You want me to spend so much time with this young girl o’ yours and you don’t know me from Adam.”

“My daughter has been through some trauma, Mr Cobb,” said the gentleman, cutting him off with his words and a motion of his hand to match. “She has certain problems with her mind that make her say some very strange things, and makes her very untrustworthy of people,” he explained. “When she does trust a person it means something, more than it ever could to the rest of us, and for some unknown reason she has decided that you are deserving of that trust,” he told Jayne, who’s mouth dropped open of its own accord at such a statement.

He’d met the girl just yesterday, and spent not a half hour in her company. She knew less about him than he did about her right now, and yet she trusted him? She had to be way more long-suh than her Daddy was willing to admit, that was for gorram sure. Still, it worked out well for Jayne so he weren’t complaining.

“Besides which,” Mr Tam had gone on to say, “there are plenty of other staff in this house that I do know I can trust and who would come to me with any information of untoward goings on,” he explained. “If you do prove to be in anything less than one hundred percent reliable, Mr Cobb, I shall see to it that more than your cash flow is cut off,” he said, with that kind of menacing look usually received for evil villains in movies.

He didn’t scare Jayne, course not, but losing this job would be bad enough of a threat to keep him in line. He didn’t need to go stealing from these folk, nor upsettin’ them any given what they was prepared to pay him for services rendered. Wasn’t like he’d hurt some girl he didn’t even know anyhow. No man should go hitting womenfolk, unless it become abolsutely necessary for self-defence, and he couldn’t see this River girl proving to be dangerous at all, skinny little thing she was. The cash he was getting paid, he could go find himself some decent trim too, wouldn’t have a need for hitting on none of the serving girls and such here, and the girl in his charge sure didn’t interest him any. Sure’n she was pretty enough, built in such a way as a fella had to notice, but he weren’t no animal and wouldn’t take advantage of a young thing like her, not like so many he knew.

“Ah, here she is,” said Mr Tam at length as the girl in question appeared at the top of the stairs, trying to stop herself from running before she caused an accident and/or embarrassed herself.

Jayne watched as River descended the stairs like some kind of lady at a ball, a long burgundy dress kicking out around her legs as she came towards him with one hand on the banister rail, her other arm linked through Simon’s own now. He hadn’t meant to stare, but she deliberately seemed to be gazing at him in such a way as he didn’t know how to look in any other direction, til her brother spoke up when they reached the bottom step and snapped Jayne out of whatever spell the little witch must’ve put on him.

“Mr Cobb,” he greeted him with a curt nod. “So nice to see you again,” he lied, and Jayne knew it though he didn’t say so.

“Likewise,” he lied just the same, as River smiled.

“Too formal if we shall be family,” she said, swaying side to side a little as she continued in her gazing up at her hero. “She shall call him Jayne if he shall not mind.”

“Course not,” he agreed to it easily. “’S my name after all, ain’t it?” He smiled back at her, unsure a moment later whether that had been a good idea.

Hell, if this girl weren’t gonna be a whole hell of a lot more trouble than he ever imagined if’n she was gonna go gettin’ some kinda crush on him. Not that Jayne minded so much that he looked good enough to her that she liked him and all. His problem was only that if she put the moves on him, however he acted was most like to get him fired. 

Though Simon and his father were chattering some on the details of this whole deal, Jayne didn’t hear much as his mind got caught in the trap River was setting with her eyes, and with her sweet as honey voice when she leant in too close and whispered to him.

“She thinks they will be very good friends,” was what she said, though Jayne couldn’t help but wonder if’n that was just exactly what she meant.

There was a whole long list of not-so-bright ideas Jayne Cobb had had over the years, but he had a feeling takin’ on this job might just be shooting right up there to the top.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been three days since Jayne’s last visit to the Tam house. They had agreed basic terms for his coming to work there, picked out a room he was to call his own since his services could be needed any time day or night, and tomorrow was the day that everything was put into motion.

Getting out of working for Marco wasn’t an easy task, and Jayne knew it. Easiest way would be to shoot the guy but there was no fun in that, besides it’d be like crapping in his own back yard if he was gonna stay on Osiris for some amount o’ time. Instead, he went for the classic double-cross to get out of the contract that wasn’t worth the handshake that started it. Now here Jayne was, a free man, due to sign that freedom away for a while, but for a price he was gorram sure many a man would agree to.

What had him puzzled was why he was here at the Tam house a day sooner than planned. He got the call he was needed and he come since the chances were good he might need to be finding himself new business pretty sharp if’n the fancy folks had gone and changed their gorram minds on him. Sure’n he was in for a surprise when he arrived at the house expecting to meet Gabriel Tam and be told their deal was over ‘fore it begun. Instead, he was taken to a different room in the house and met by the son, Simon.

“Ah, Mr Cobb,” he greeted him with a forced smile. “I’m glad you came.”

“Thought we agreed on callin’ me Jayne,” he replied in his usual gruff tone, taking the seat Simon offered him, albeit gingerly.

Something didn’t sit right here. The fact the boy’s Pa weren’t here, the way he was hopping around like a bug on a hot plate, didn’t make no sense at all. Jayne almost wondered if’n he was being set up here or something, though he couldn’t yet see why or what for.

“Okay, Jayne,” said Simon at length as he sat down the other side of his desk facing River’s bodyguard, or so he would be tomorrow when he sighed the contract and officially moved in. “Tell me, do you have brothers and sisters?” he asked conversationally, causing an even deeper frown to form on the other man’s face.

“Oldest o’ seven,” he answered anyway. “Three boys, three girls, all come after me.”

“Wow. Large family,” said Simon with slightly wider eyes than he’d started out. “Well, as you know I have only one sister, and whilst I wouldn’t insult you by suggesting I care for her more than you would for your own siblings, I certainly love her just as much,” he said, his voice taking on an edge that Jayne recognised very well.

The kid didn’t do threatening so good, not even as well as his old man and he didn’t scare Jayne anyhow. Still, he knew what Simon was getting at, and he had some respect for the boy, not least because he probably knew Jayne could kill him six ways from Sunday he had half a mind, and most like wouldn’t even break a sweat in the process.

“This you warnin’ me to protect your lil’ sister?” asked Jayne, leaning back in the chair. “’Cause far as I know that’s what your Pa is payin’ me for, so that’s what I’m gonna do,” he said easily, not needing threats nor nothin’ to do that.

Sure, Jayne had pulled burglaries in his time, but if’n he was getting paid or doin’ this bodyguard stuff, he had no need for causin’ a fuss. He’d do the job just as long as they kept the cash flowing. Sure as the worlds turned, he was actually looking forward to the guaranteed comforts this house and the regular income could bring. Above all this, it pleased him to know he’d have plenty of coin to send back to his Ma, help take care of those brothers and sisters he’d been talkin’ of not a minute before.

“Yes, you will be paid to be River’s bodyguard, to physically protect her from harm.” Simon nodded his agreement. “But there’s more to it that just that,” he tried to explain. “She needs... she needs a replacement brother figure whilst I’m away,” he said awkwardly, not sure how a man like Jayne was going to take this request. “I’m not asking you to love River as your sister, that would be too much of a request, I know, but she needs support, someone to listen sometimes and reassure her when she gets... out of control.”

“Outta control how?” asked Jayne, his eyes narrowing.

The skinny little woman didn’t seem like she could cause much damage no matter how much she lost it. Still, the way Simon was looking now made him wonder if her looks was deceivin’ somehow.

“River was a student at an Alliance run Academy for a little over a year,” he began to explain, leaning his elbows on the desk and steepling his fingers. “Being away from her family caused her a lot of distress, and I believe some of the teaching methods at that place added to her problematic mental state.”

Jayne listened with interest, the frown on his face deepening not out of confusion since he did follow what the kid was saying, fanciful words and all. What was bothering him was why some hwun dahn Alliance types would screw with the head of this girl who, as far as he could tell, was only guilty of bein’ rich and smart.

“Between her near-genius intelligence, and please believe that I am in no way exaggerating with my terminology,” said Simon with a feint smile. “Between that and her tendency to let her imagination run wild, my sister is quite an anomaly for her age,” he explained. “She is a sweet girl, and she would never mean to do any harm, but you need to know that there are times when she suffers from episodes of severe anger, fear, and I’m afraid to say violence,” he admitted.

“Makin’ me wonder why your Pa never did tell me none o’ this when he offered me a job,” said Jayne, scratching his bearded chin. “I mean, he said she had problems and all, but-”

“Oh, he won’t tell you the truth because he doesn’t really know it himself,” Simon admitted. “You see, my parents choose the option of ignorance being bliss,” he said with a smile that was fuelled more by sarcasm that anything else. “They refuse to understand the depth of River’s problems, and I am left to work alone in trying to help her.” He sighed. “There are very few people that River trusts, Jayne. Myself and her maid, Nancy, are two of a very small number she will allow near her, even in her most out of character moments. In my absence, Nancy is able to administer a smoother or anything of that nature, but it will be up to you to help control River at those times.”

Jayne weren’t sure how he felt about this job right now. Sure’n he was fine with being a bodyguard, security was easy, and beatin’ on other folks was all the fun he needed. Now he was being told he had to restrain some sack o’ hammers little woman when she started pitchin’ a fit, and that was a whole other ballgame.

Then he thought on it the way Simon had told it, thought how he’d feel if’n it was one of his siblings this had happened to. His brother Matty was a sickly kid, been through a lot, and Jayne hated having to leave him behind to go out in the ‘verse and work. He got how Simon must feel, needing to leave River in the hands of other folk while he went out in the world to do his trade. Sure’n these folks was rich, but the love of brothers and sisters was the same the ‘verse over. On that level, Jayne and Simon could find an understanding, form an unlikely bond.

“Ain’t a problem to me.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “That’s what you need, that’s what I’m doin’,” he agreed easily, though he and Simon both knew it was far from an easy thing to talk about.

“Thank you, Jayne,” said Simon then as he got to his feet, the first genuine smile of the day on his lips as he held out a hand to shake. “I am grateful that you understand, and still feel able to take on this task.”

Jayne just nodded his head dumbly, not sure what else he was supposed to say. Truth be known he was more for action rather than words, and apparently it was mostly his muscle that was going to be needed on this job. How he was gonna deal with the River girl if’n she went completely off her axle at him, well, that he hadn’t entirely figured out yet, but hoped he’d be able to when the time came for him to do it.

As they moved to leave the office, a butler type appeared, looking for Simon. He spoke all quiet like to the boy, in such a way as Jayne was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear, though why it mattered that the Doc had a call from a hospital he couldn’t figure.

“Ah, I have to take this call,” he said, feeling awkward until he suddenly spotted River at the top of the stairs. “Mei mei, there you are.” He smiled at the sight of her though her eyes seemed pretty much glued on Jayne or so her new bodyguard thought. “Would you be an angel and see Jayne out whilst I take an important call?”

“Of course,” she agreed easily, though she made no hurry in coming down the stairs even as Simon rushed off and disappeared back into his office. “She finds him fascinating. An enigma,” she said as she began gliding down the steps, stopping part way to stare dumbly at Jayne once again, her expression unreadable.

“I’m a what, now?” he asked, not sure whether he was meant to be offended or not and mindful to keep his tone neutral until he found out one way or the other.

“Enigma,” she repeated slowly as if he were a slow child. “Mystery, puzzle, a riddle to be solved,” she explained, much like she were a thesaurus and dictionary combined.

Jayne scratched his head as he stared up at her, wondering on both what she said and what she was doing since she was still half way up the steps showing no signs of moving or stopping from staring at him in what was by now an unnerving kind of a way.

“Ain’t nothin’ so complicated ‘bout me.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Not like some people,” he added, clearly suggesting she was much more a puzzle than he might be, at least that was what he seemed to mean and River was quite happy to take his words at face value.

“She scares him,” she said, a smile curving her lips, leaning back against the smooth wood of the banister rail.

“Ain’t nothin’ that scares me,” he told her with evident amusement. “Not some little girly like you, that’s for gorram sure”

Without another word she pushed herself back and up, parking her behind on the top of the rail and letting herself ride the curve of the thing right down to the bottom at some speed. She hopped off right at the bottom step, landing effortlessly on her feet before Jayne, apparently unphased by the fact she might’ve hurt herself, broken something, or flattened him into the ground if she’d made just the tiniest of errors.

“Liar.” She smirked as she peered up at him, eyes dancing with fun.

Jayne didn’t know what he was meant to say to that. He was mad at her but not sure why. Maybe because she was questioning his not being man enough to be unafraid of a silly little woman like her. Maybe because he had actually worried about her when she came slip-sliding down the rail like that, risking some kind o’ injury to one or the pair of them.

“Maybe you oughta be scared o’ me,” he suggested as he followed her to the front door.

“She doesn’t see why.” She sighed heavily, as if his argument was tiresome to her, attitude changing in an insist as she stopped walking so suddenly he almost ran into the back of her. “Sometimes she thinks everything is something to be afraid of.”

The way she talked sounded as if she wasn’t even sure if the thoughts in her head were her own somehow. The way Simon told it, Jayne figured that could be just exactly what her problem was. It made getting mad at the girl seem wrong, if’n she was so confused that she didn’t even know what she was saying half the time.

“Well,” he said at length, “ain’t nothin’ you gotta be scared of when I’m around. Gonna protect you from... whatever there is you needs protectin’ from,” he said awkwardly, ever more so when River turned around with a bright smile now back on her face, the very picture of gratitude and childish wonder.

“She knows, and she thanks you, kind sir,” she told him, over-acting a curtsey as she opened the front door for him to exit through. “She will see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I guess she will,” he replied, wondering at his own words as his eyes stayed so fixed on the strange little creature that he almost misjudged the door entirely and walked into the wall.

River Tam was the darndest girl, far as Jayne could tell. In just a few days he felt like he’d met three different people that wore her face and answered to her name. There was a child that needed taking care of, that Simon fussed over, and that her parents wanted to keep in line. There was a woman who looked at him like no woman had any business looking at a man unless she wanted him for things Jayne had only ever paid for up to now. Finally there was the patient, with a head full of crazy and a body she didn’t care enough for to keep safe. All these three people were rolled into one, and Jayne was gonna be spending a whole lot of time with her starting tomorrow. As yet, he weren’t entirely sure how that was gonna work for him.

“See ya tomorrow then,” he muttered as he left the Tam house, wondering on all these things.

River was still smiling, even when she shut the door behind him, feeling the warmth of his heart and the comforting fuzz of his brainwaves still washing over her.

“Tomorrow,” she repeated to herself. “And every day... forever.”


	5. Chapter 5

It didn’t take long for Jayne Cobb to move into the Tam’s town house. Men like him travelled light because they had to, running from trouble they found themselves caught up in at a moment’s notice. The room came with all the furnishings he’d be needin’ anyhow. A bed, a kind of a closet for his few clothes, and a few drawers to toss his other belongings into. No, Jayne didn’t have much simply because he didn’t need it. His guns were his prize possessions, though he could fight just as well without them if’n he had to. Jayne made a conscious decision not to tell any folk here in this house just exactly what he came with, though he’d catalogued it all in his own head, sure he’d know if anything went astray. Some folk might say the Tams were fools for letting a man like him into their home, but Jayne still thought maybe he was the idiot, putting himself in this place with so many folks he didn’t know nor care to in particular. He wasn’t so sure he could trust all of them even as much as they seemed to trust him.

“She approves,” said a voice from the entrance to the bedroom Jayne was to call his own from here on out.

He turned rather sharply from his place sat on the bed to see River stood framed in the doorway.

“Decent enough room.” He shrugged. “Just can’t figure just exactly what you’re doin’ down here lookin’ at it,” he asked her, scratching his bearded chin.

River didn’t answer at first, just continued to look around, her eyes on everything and nothing. She fixed on the ceiling a long moment and soon had Jayne following her gaze trying to figure what the gorram hell was so interesting up there. Before he got a chance to actually ask, she spoke again.

“Two layers between them... angle of no more than forty degrees from furthest corners...” she considered, so soft in her tone that Jayne couldn’t quite work out for sure if she was talking to him or just to herself. “She approves,” she repeated more loudly then, her eyes meeting his as she smiled.

“That’s just dandy then, ain’t it?” he said, not really sure how else to react, truth be told.

She was smiling, and Jayne took that to be a good thing. He was here to keep her safe and all, and if’n she was happy right now then stood to reason she must feel safe enough with him here like this. That was all good, far as he could tell.

“You are very welcome in our home, Jayne Cobb,” she said, all but curtseying in the doorway before tip-toeing in and coming to a halt at the end of the bed, her hands folded on the wooden panel there. “She wonders if a family home will suit him.”

“I’s got a family of my own, y’know?” he told her, though honestly he wasn’t sure why, after all he rarely if ever discussed his kinfolk with anyone.

“She would like to know more, if he would like to tell her,” said River with a grin, as she sidled around to sit on the end of the bed, her back against the foot-board.

Jayne weren’t quite so sure how to take it. The girl didn’t really oughta be in his room like this, so he reckoned. First off, he was a man who as yet couldn’t be entirely trusted, since he weren’t really known to the folks that lived here. Second he was a worker in this place and she was from the fancy family who employed him. Third, well, girls like her just didn’t ought to be wandering into the rooms of menfolk being so pretty and sweet and all. Bad things happened to good girls that way, not that Jayne was the type that would take advantage of her, she was practicality a kid, so he reckoned, but how she knew that for sure, he hadn’t an idea.

“You wanna know about my home and my folks?” he asked her, a little curious as to why such a thing ought to be of interest to a girl like her. “Why?”

“She has few friends to talk with.” River shrugged her slim shoulders, throwing her hair behind her. “He will be a friend, she thinks, and so she would know him better. She would know the Man Called Jayne as well as he will allow.”

Jayne didn’t like to wonder too much on how she meant that to sound. He just settled himself at the very opposite end of his bed and got to thinking about what she might like best to hear about his folks.

“Well, let’s see now,” he said with consideration. “Ain’t a whole lot I can tell ya, girly.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I gots me a Ma and Pa, just like most folks. Oldest of seven brothers and sisters, that’s me.” He grinned, just thinking on all the siblings he’d looked out for as they grew up. “We was pretty close, I guess, but that’s just the way folks is on the rim.”

“You have known less opulence than she has,” said River sadly. “And yet more love, she thinks.”

Jayne rolled the word op-u-lence over in his mind and come up thinking he was pretty sure she meant money and such. What she said were true o’ course, he never had much coin to spare and what there was he gave his Ma to spend on food and clothes and such for the young ‘uns. Love he had from his folks, that was true, though the River girl weren’t so much without, far as he could tell.

“Got your brother, ain’t ya?” he reminded her. “Seems to me he looks out for ya plenty.”

“Simon is the greatest of brothers; faithful guh-guh.” She smiled. “But those that made her, grew her, raised her?” She shook her head as he eyes sank to the bed and her happy expression shifted to something deeply sad and troubled. “She is broken and they cannot fix. To see is to believe and to feel ashamed,” she rattled out, fit for tears far as Jayne could tell.

Womenfolk crying was one thing he couldn’t stand to see. Whether it was his own Ma, one of sisters, some pretty waitress in trouble, or this here girl sat across from him now, Jayne never did see a worse sight than tears in the eyes of a woman, and hell if he hadn’t seen some sights in his years. Just when he was trying to figure on whether he was right to so much as touch the girl, he sensed movement by the door and flinched back fast at the sight of Simon.

“There you are, River.” He sighed with some relief when he spotted her, apparently not mad or anything in spite of the fact Jayne had his mei mei right there on his bed with him.

“She is fine, Simon.” She sighed just as heavily, though hers had an eye-roll to match as she lifted herself off the bed and wriggled a little against the arm Simon put around her shoulders.

“You really shouldn’t be down here,” he admonished. “Bothering Jayne before he’s really started work.”

“She ain’t no bother to me,” the words were out of the merc’s mouth before he had a chance to think on ‘em much.

Twas a toss up as to who looked more surprised and confused as Simon and River turned as one to look back at Jayne still sat on his bed. Honest to God, he didn’t know when he stopped minding folks just wandering into space that was his, asking him personal type questions. Just yesterday he mighta shot a man for less, but then River weren’t no man, nor like any other woman nor child he ever met neither. She was different, in all kinds of ways, and the weirdest part was it didn’t bother him. He kinda liked it, truth be known, even if he hadn’t quite figured on why that was just yet.

“Well, perhaps... If you’re settled in here, perhaps we could give you the grand tour of the rest of the house, Jayne,” Simon offered politely, still holding onto his sister.

The smile was back on her face as she and her new bodyguard glanced at each other then. She nodded that she liked the idea and since he figured he did need the tour and had nothing else he was wanted for right now, he might just as well go do it.

“If’n that’s what we gotta do.” He shrugged as he got up from the bed and wandered over to the door, following the Tam siblings out.

* * *

It was getting late but Jayne weren’t exactly tired yet. He was used to being up at night more than during the day, the cover of darkness proving all kinds of useful for the crimes he’d committed. Felt strange to be the right side of the law for a while, but he’d give it a try. He was sure makin’ enough coin and had all his home comforts. The cook supplied a decent meal a while back and then Jayne had been left to wander a bit in the staff quarters and all, getting to know the folks he’d be living close by too. He knew Nancy now, River’s maid. She weren’t exactly pretty nor nothin’, no real interest to Jayne ‘ceptin’ she was the one to yell for if’n Simon weren’t around and the girl had one of her seizures or episodes or whatever the hell they was.

Seemed to Jayne the River girl was kinda whimsical in the brainpain but that was all. Couldn’t see she was gonna be much trouble to him, especially not around the house. She wanted to go wandering around outside, he might have to take more care, but mostly he could see himself fending off less-pleasant suitors or jealous types that’d be after her money or jewels if’n she wore them.

Jayne was just letting his eyes close a minute, not really intending to sleep since he was still wearing his pants and was lying on top of the blankets, not actually in the bed. He’d been thinking maybe he’d make use of the shower before he turned in, and yet lying here on the softest most comfortable bed he’d had in a gorram long time, it was easy just to drift off...

A crash in the hallway and a near blood-curdling scream had Jayne awake and on his feet within a split second. The noise had come from River and he knew it, had figured where she was from that alone and was pelting down the corridor and around the corner before anybody else could blink.

River was out in the main foyer of the house, arms flailing as if she was trying to fend off some bad guy or other and screaming at the top of her lungs ‘bout nothing in particular as far as Jayne could tell. There was nobody there but her, still she raved on.

“Ai yah tien ah...” he cursed as he hurried over, mindful of her coming to harm by throwing herself full force into a wall, the tiled floor, or the thick wooden banister rails of the staircase. “Come on now, girly, that’s enough o’ that,” he told her, calmly as he could as he wrapped strong arms around her from behind and pulled her in close to his body.

At first River continued screaming and kicking, assuming the attacker she must be seeing in her mind was now real and had hold of her. Though he was mindful of hurting her worse than she could hurt herself, Jayne kept up his grip on her arms and body, lifting her feet clean off the ground in an attempt to keep her from getting away.

“Hey, girl, quit writhing around,” he urged her, moving his head away as her own was thrown around, giving him a faceful of hair so far but likely to cause him an injury if’n she threw the back of her skull into his nose or similar. “It’s Jayne, alright? I ain’t gonna hurt ya!” he reminded her, though she still would not be calm.

Turned about by the force of her struggling, the bodyguard soon noticed he weren’t the only servant type to come running at the sound of the young woman’s screams and shouts. Unfortunately, not a one amongst the handful of staff stood their by the door was who he needed.

“One of you better go get Nancy, or better yet Simon,” he told them, surprised by the fact he was really struggling to keep River in check here. “This ain’t gonna end anytime soon if’n you don’t!” he yelled when nobody moved, then watched as the half a dozen staff scattered in all directions.

“They’re coming! They come when you call!” the girl was wailing, and Jayne felt her tears raining down onto his arms as he held her. “Come to take the children into the night. The rats and the children and... and they never stop coming!” she cried.

Upside to her tears seemed to be they was replacing the anger and violence. Her feet soon stopped kicking, the struggling ceased, as her slim body leaned back against Jayne’s solid chest and convulsed with the force of sobs that escaped her.

Sure that the worst was over, or maybe just hoping he was right, Jayne set the girl back on her feet. He eased up his grip on her some and turned her around so she was facing him, though his large hands still held her by the upper arms just in case she kicked off again.

“Ain’t nothin’ comin’ for ya, ya hearin’ me, girl?” he told her firmly. “And if’n it was, ain’t nobody here gonna let ‘em take ya, dong ma?”

Though his eyes were locked on hers, he wasn’t sure she was even seeing him clear, nevermind hearing. It was like she could see clean through his body, through the walls, through reality and into some other world made up of all her nightmares. With a great wail and a sob, River threw herself into Jayne’s chest and his arms wrapped around her on automatic.

Whether she knew what she had done or even what she was doing now wasn’t at all clear, but at least while she was bawling she weren’t doin’ no harm to herself or no-one else, far as Jayne could tell. Looking around, he made a snap decision, sliding one arm under River’s legs and swinging her up into his embrace with ease. Two flights of stairs carrying a weight would’ve been easy enough, but Jayne hardly felt he had anything at all in his arms - the girl weighed next to nothing compared to him.

Jayne had done this before. He had sisters and brothers both, all younger than him, and all had been upset about something or got themselves some minor injury at some time or other. Carrying them around was easy enough, taking care and all. He could do this if’n he had to. Course none of his kinfolks had never had quite the fit River had just now, and he weren’t altogether sure yet how he was gonna handle such outbursts if’n they got any worse.

“Oh, Miss River!” the maid, Nancy, was outside the right bedroom, which helped Jayne out some since in all the confusion he wasn’t altogether sure which door was hers.

“She didn’t do herself no harm,” explained Jayne when River continued to bawl and wail against his chest. “Just got a little... crazy,” he said for lack of a better word, not overly surprised when River started up her kicking again to the point where he very near dropped her.

“Not crazy, she’s not!” she yelled at him, banging on his shoulder with both fists though not so hard as to really bother a guy the size of Jayne. “He doesn’t see. Red and blue, and coming fast... faster than she can spin!”

“Easy now, Miss River,” said Nancy as she made a careful approach.

The needle slid effortlessly into the top of the girl’s arm and in a moment she was limp as a ragdoll in Jayne’s arms. He frowned some, not least when he saw what looked like tears welling in Nancy’s eyes. She weren’t no happier ‘bout sticking these drugs into her Mistress than Jayne was seein’ it happen, but they didn’t seem to have much of a choice in any of this, no more than River herself.

Taking her into her bedroom, Jayne laid the girl down careful-like onto her over-sized bed. He moved aside to let Nancy check her over, to smooth out her dress and hair, make sure she hadn’t hurt herself during her episode. Still, it didn’t occur to the bodyguard to leave the room. Honest truth of it was, he was still wonderin’ at just exactly what this girl really was. She seemed sweet and nice enough when he met her, little odd maybe, but that weren’t no crime. What he’d seen a few minutes before was more animal than person, and that was all kinds of creepifyin’.

“You alright, Mr Cobb?” asked Nancy, breaking both his stare and his train of thought. “You’re bleedin’,” she pointed to his face and he took a moment to glance in the looking glass on the vanity table.

“Told ya, ‘s just Jayne,” he answered the maid, as he brought his hand to the scratch on his cheek that was no doubt caused by River’s nails when her arms were flailing like a crazy windmill - he hadn’t even noticed. “I’ll live,” he said with a shrug, like this whole thing was nothing.

“I know it’s kinda scary when she goes off like that, but... well, I’d say you get used to it but I don’t reckon I ever really do.” Nancy sighed as she gazed down at her young charge, apparently feeling as bad as Jayne did for her.

“Poor little woman,” he muttered as he stared down at the now sleeping River. “Where are her folks anyhow?” he checked with Nancy then.

“Mr Simon was called away, a medical emergency, I think,” she explained, looking from River to Jayne. “The parents are at a society function, thankfully,” she said, eyes going heavenward as if she were silently praising the Lord for small mercies. “If they’d seen this?” She shook her head, leaving her sentence hanging in mid-air.

“What?” Jayne prompted, wanting to know what she was going to say, how River’s oblivious parents might have handled their daughter in one of her crazy fits.

Nancy just shook her head, turning away and heading off out of the room.

“I’m just glad they didn’t,” she said softly, and then she was gone, leaving Jayne with a chill running down his spine, and a new determination to do his job well.


	6. Chapter 6

Just when they’d settled into some kind of routine, it was all gonna get shot to hell. That didn’t bother Jayne much but he had enough mind to think that it weren’t gonna help River none. She seemed to like when things ran smooth, when things she expected to happen always did. Of course, she was the most unpredictable of anyone in the house, but that was just another contradiction of the girl that her new bodyguard had to wrap his head around this past week or so.

That was how long Jayne had been living and working here now, and he’d settled in without too much trouble. He got his meals regular as clockwork, had a room of his own and a bed to sleep in, made use of the excercise room set aside for the staff, and all in all found he could pass through a whole day without once wishing he was elsewhere doing anything else. Course it might’ve been nice if he had some trim on hand but the few maids of the house weren’t really suitable for what he’d call a good time. A couple looked even younger than River, a couple more were as old as Jayne’s own Ma, he was sure. That left a half dozen in-betweeners he mighta taken a fancy too, ‘ceptin’ all of them seemed to be spoken for in one way or the other, and not willing to budge on that. Didn’t matter too much to Jayne though, he could take care of matters himself if’n he had to, and just as soon as he had his coin paid and a day’s leave to take, there was whorehouses a plenty even on a fancy Core planet like this one, if you knew were to look, and he surely did.

Right now, Jayne’s mind weren’t actually on whores nor money, which was strange since they was two of his three main areas of expertise and joy (the other being weaponry). This particular minute, his attention was altogether taken by River and Simon, as the boy hugged his sister tight and promised her he’d be back to visit just as soon as ever he could.

Today was the day that Dr Simon Tam when out in the world and proved his worth. He was headed for Ariel, since the fancy hospital there that was St Lucy’s was taking him on as an intern. He was gonna be this great medical mind of the future, so River said often enough. All Jayne could see right now was a brother who was loathe to leave his baby sister behind. He could relate, never did much care for walking out of his home, leaving six siblings and his Ma behind the way he had, but a man had to find his own way in the world, earn his living and all. Sure’n Jayne’s way of doing that was far removed from Simon’s own, but it all came down to the same thing.

Though he never let on, the boys leaving bothered the bodyguard a whole lot more than it should. He was one for watching other folks, helped him do the job he was so good at, tracking down fellas that needed to be tracked, looking for weaknesses in those that needed bringing down. In this house, he soon come to notice that there was few who really cared for River and what she was going through. One was Simon, another was Nancy, but most of the rest of the staff either thought she was long-suh and not worth their time, or were scared to death of getting within five feet of the girl that might be possessed by the devil or some such, so he’d heard in staff quarters.

Jayne didn’t believe she was so bad, and whatever was wrong with her had obviously been done to her, and weren’t her fault. Weren’t his place to say, so he didn’t, but he watched and he learnt and he wondered on things. With Simon gone, there was a good chance the parents were gonna have to to deal with River’s crazy fits of behaviour sometimes. From what Nancy told him his first night here, Jayne weren’t convinced they’d do it well.

River hadn’t had another ‘episode’ as Simon liked to call it, since that first night. She was calm as a mill pond, morning, noon, and night time. She played her games, studied her books, laughed at jokes, and talked for the most part like she was a normal sort of a girl. ‘Course Jayne was always on his guard a little, just waiting for her to go off like a bomb. Simon told him not to worry too much, and praised him for the way he handled everything. He seemed convinced that River would get better, that he could make it happen. Jayne couldn’t be that confident yet in either the boy’s success or failure, but then he didn’t know the whole story, hadn’t been here long enough yet.

“Jayne,” suddenly Simon had moved from saying goodbye to his folks and was stood in front of the bodyguard himself who’d been hovering there in the background as he always was. “Take care of my mei mei,” he said with a look that spoke the volumes he could never say, not in front of River or more especially their parents.

“You got my word, doc,” he promised, shaking the younger man’s hand. “Er, good luck with your doctorin’ and all,” he said awkwardly at which Simon smiled.

“Thank you.” He nodded graciously before picking up his bag and turning to leave at at last.

Jayne expected tears from River but when he looked her way she was smiling just as wide as anything, as she waved her hand over her head quite happily.

“Bye, Simon!” she called behind him, apparently not the least phased by his leaving.

“Thought you’d be a might upset over his goin’ like that,” said Jayne, thinking after maybe he’d’ve been better of making no mention of it, but it was too late once the words were out of his mouth.

“She would rather he stayed.” She shrugged her slim shoulders, letting her arm fall to her side as her brother was driven out of sight. “But he will be a great doctor, the best in the ‘verse.” She smiled brightly, turning to look up at Jayne. “Sisters want what’s best for their brothers. Dalphia, Evie, and Lilly-May would say the same,” she told him, eyes bright and laughing at him apparently.

Jayne didn’t get a moment to process what she’d said, never mind ask how the hell she knew the names of his sisters since he knew very well he never had told her. Though the question was right there on his tongue, he was stopped from asking when River moved over to her parents to ask them a favour.

“She wishes to walk into town, take the fresh air.” The girl smiled still. “She’ll be back before dinner.”

“If you’d like to go out, bao-bei, of course you may,” said her mother kindly, an affectionate hand at River’s cheek. “Your father and I have packing to complete for our trip so you’ll be better occupied out for a walk anyway.”

“Yes, of course,” Gabriel agreed. “So long as Jayne is with you,” he said, looking to the bodyguard with a steely gaze.

Jayne got the idea he weren’t entirely trusted to do his job right somehow. Maybe it was that, maybe it was something else, but there was something that just not right sit right about the way Gabriel Tam run his house. He couldn’t shake the idea that there was more to the jumped up dandy than met the eye, but since he couldn’t prove nothin’ and both liked and needed this job right now, Jayne tried not to do anything stupid. He nodded in response to his boss talking to him and watched River gallop off to fetch a shawl and her shoes so they could get going.

* * *

“This ain’t the way into town,” Jayne noted as he and River headed down the street from her house, taking what he considered to be the wrong turning at the next intersection.

“He is observant.” She smiled slyly, continuing on her way, not worrying that Jayne had to hurry to catch up to her after stopping and staring a moment too long.

“And she ain’t as bright as she oughta be, tryin’ to wander off,” he warned her with what ought to have been a harsh look and yet failed when she turned bright shining eyes on him, complete with winning smile.

Within a moment, she was looking far off in the other direction, moving her head as if she was trying to listen for something that weren’t there, or so Jayne thought. Seemed he was right too because just as soon as they got to the gates that led into the park she started bouncing like a bug on a hot plate.

“You hear it?” she asked, before taking off at a fair pace.

“No, I don’t!” declared her bodyguard as he took off after her, mindful of letting her get away from him in such a place as this.

It was a wide open area of grass and greenery, if anybody come at River he’d see them easy before they had a chance to get away. Still there was a wood off to one side and a row of dilapidated houses far off on the other, either of which could make things difficult. It seemed River had a notion to run towards the trees and Jayne didn’t much like that plan, telling her so as he caught up to her and grabbed her arm.

“Easy there, girly,” he told her when she tried to pulled free from his grasp. “Can’t let you go running off just exactly where you please like that, your folks’d have my hide.”

“Listen!” she urged him into silence, and sure enough this time when Jayne pricked up his ears he could hear something.

“Music? In the woods?” he said with a frown, not understanding how or why he could hear such a thing here.

River’s giddy smile returned as she slid her hand into his and dragged him with her through a less dense part of the woods. Jayne was still confused as he looked back over his shoulder. Over all that distance, there weren’t a chance the girl could’ve heard this music that was still the wrong side of quiet even now to his own ears, and yet she had. A minute or so later, as they came upon a clearing, it was obvious that here was the music and fun that River so wanted to enjoy. A gathering of the rarely seen middle class folks that existed on Osiris, all enjoying some kind of fair or celebration, with a band playing and fancy country dancing in the centre of a heaving mass of folks all clapping and singing.

Honest to goodness, Jayne hadn’t ever seen anythin’ like it, and nothin’ half so joyful as the look on River’s face as her hand slipped from his and she ran into the centre of the dancing, throwing herself full force into the rhythm and melody of the music. She seemed to know the steps instinctively, falling in with the other womenfolk as if she were born to be there, spinning til her dress flared out at her knees and laughing giddily with delight.

Jayne hadn’t hardly noticed the grin that had settled on his own face as he watched her go. ’Twas quite the sight to see, that was for gorram sure. The little woman was pretty as a picture when she smiled anyhow, but to see her like this, beaming brighter than any star and having the time of there life, well it warmed a corner of Jayne’s heart he hadn’t entirely known was still there.

Unfortunately, just as soon as he and River both had begun to enjoy this happy atmosphere, things took a change for the worse. She stopped dancing, so abruptly she nearly knocked herself over, and Jayne reacted with genuine alarm as all in the same second she looked to him with pure fear written on her features. He took one step toward her but immediately felt a hand at his shoulder pulling him back. Jayne unknowingly turned into a fist across the face and though it was a surprise, he did not falter more than a moment.

Shouts and screams rang out in the background somewhere, River’s louder than any other, but Jayne couldn’t worry about that right now. He knew who this fella was, a friend or maybe employee of the guy he’d been tracking for Marco a couple of weeks back. Clearly they still thought Jayne was running with that gang and had come for answers, money, or blood. Whichever it was, they weren’t getting it, of that the newly-employed bodyguard was entirely certain.

Men, women, and children, who moments before had been so happy, now gasped in shock, cried in fear, and cowered away from the fist fight that sent tables and chairs flying in its wake. Then just as quickly as it started, it was over, leaving the larger man lying battered, bruised, and unconscious on the grass.

“Sorry ‘bout that folks,” said Jayne, breathing pretty hard from the exertion of the fight as he put his hands on his knees and sucked in much needed lungfuls of air.

A tentative hand at his elbow made him turn too fast and there he found River hovering at his side, tears streaming down her cheeks as he looked right past him at the body on the ground.

“He ain’t dead,” he promised her. “Coulda been, but he ain’t,” he admitted, as he stood straight at last, checking himself for any injuries that might prove worse than they felt - he found nothing that worried him.

“She is to blame,” River started up muttering, quiet at first but getting louder all the time. “Blame her, she brought him. He came for her, and he came for him, came to end what started and will never stop... never stop... IT NEVER STOPS!”

She was screaming and crying by now, hands at her head, pulling her hair too hard to be doing good as she ran in random little circles near and around Jayne. Folks was staring and that bothered him more than her fittin’ right now. Her shouting and screaming was creepyfin’ and all but if’n he had to he’d gag the girl to get her home without any trouble. Couldn’t stop this whole crowd hearing and seeing what was right in front of them, and so it seemed a hasty exit was the only way to deal with this.

“C’mon, girly, snap out of it,” he said, as he got a hold of her by the shoulders and made her look only at him. “You listenin’ to me, little woman?” he tried to be heard and understood over her own screaming and carrying on, his hands moving up to the sides of her face, forcing her eyes to meet his.

She started to quieten a bit then, though the tears kept coming. She closed her eyes from him and the world and yet it was almost as if whatever was bothering her was still there, that she could still see it inside her head. Jayne didn’t much want to focus on that right now, since he couldn’t explain it and therefore couldn’t much help her with it neither.

“Let’s get outta here,” he said, realising that the easiest way was going to be to pick her up and carry her, which he was somewhat more inclined to do now her thrashing around had ceased.

He stepped around the man he’d beaten to unconsciousness, and those that were playing good Samaritan, trying to tend to him. They never challenged Jayne about why he’d given the guy a beating, or why River had behaved the way she did. He figured on them all being as scared as kids in a haunted house on All Hallows Eve, and didn’t wonder too much further on the subject as he scooped River up into his arms and told her to hush her cryin’ as he headed back through the woods, towards the Tam house.


	7. Chapter 7

It didn’t take long for Jayne to get River home, and before the front door was ever reached she had ceased her screaming and crying which he appreciated. Course that didn’t change the fact they both looked a real mess after their adventure in the woods. The little woman’s dress was torn and dirty, her hair just as mussed up as the rest of her, and tear tracks were still visible on her red cheeks. Jayne himself wasn’t so clean his ownself after wrasslin’ around with the guy that had come after him. The taste of blood proved the hwun-dahn had bust his lip with that first punch before Jayne had managed to get the upper hand in the fight. Was a nothing kinda injury to a guy like him, but Jayne knew it weren’t gonna look too good if the Tams caught sight of him.

“You feelin’ better?” he asked River, placing her on her feet outside the main door of her house.

Though she nodded her head, she wasn’t overly convincing and Jayne dreaded what came next if she kicked-off again the moment they got in the house. Even if they avoided Mr & Mrs Tam for now, they was gonna see her afore long, most like when they come to seek her out and say goodbye on their way out the door. If only this had happened tomorrow then Jayne and River might’ve got away with it since the folks would’ve been long gone. Today, they probably weren’t gonna be so lucky...

“River!” the voice of her mother was loud and startling for the poor girl, and a down-right annoyance to Jayne.

Thankfully his muttered Chinese curses weren’t heard over the top of Regan Tam wailing for her husbands attention and bolting down the staircase towards her ‘precious little girl’. Immediately, River was behind Jayne, talking a mile a minute about something and nothing that he could make sense of.

“Punished, punished for her crimes, crime of being what they made her when she’s not her anymore...” she rattled off.

“River, darling, whatever’s happened to you?” asked Regan as she made to dodge around the bodyguard and get to her daughter.

She seemed friendly enough and immediately Jayne tried to move out of the way to let her by. River had other ideas, her hands grabbing onto bunches of material at the back of his T-shirt, unwilling to let him leave her, even though it was her own mother trying to be of some comfort apparently.

“No, no, no,” she intoned. “She won’t, she can’t. She doesn’t know how it will end!” she wailed then, taking off so suddenly even Jayne didn’t have time to react.

River didn’t get far though, running headlong into her father coming the other way.

“Hush this noise, young lady!” Gabriel snapped at her. “I will not have all this wailing in my house!” he told her crossly.

“Ain’t all her fault... sir,” Jayne added as an afterthought. “Some fella come at us when we was out walkin’. I saw to it he never laid a hand on the girl, but she got all kinds o’ upset about the fightin’ and all.”

“You did well, Jayne Cobb,” said Regan with a not quite genuine smile, putting her hand to his arm the moment he tried to step towards River and Gabriel. “But we can deal with our own daughter now,” she said definitely.

Nancy had appeared as if from nowhere, syringe in hand, even though River was in far less of a state than she could’ve been. Weren’t no violence in her, none of that wild animal Jayne had seen more’n a week before. Sure’n she was upset as anything but that weren’t no reason to dope a person. Seemed to him Nancy weren’t given no choice, nor River neither, as Gabriel made certain the drug was given to his daughter.

“I don’t reckon-” Jayne had begun to say but it was all too late and useless as Gabriel called for one of the house security guards to carry River to her room.

Immediately, he turned an icy gaze on Jayne.

“Go and get yourself cleaned up, Cobb,” he told him sharply. “You may take an hour to tend your wounds and then we will have a discussion in my office.”

“Yes, sir,” Jayne ground out, not happy about this situation at all.

He made for the staff door, but never passed through it, just stood watching the security man carrying River up the stairs, with Nancy and her folks following on behind. The little maid looked just about ready to bawl her eyes out, but the parents was cold as ice about the whole thing. Jayne was seriously startin’ to wonder why he ever took up a job in this house, and whether or not gettin’ out just as soon as he could mightn’t be the worst of plans.

‘Course leavin’ would be all fine and dandy if’n he’d only just got here, if he hadn’t given his word to Simon that he was gonna to do his best by the little woman til he came home again. River could do for herself well enough most of the time, but it seemed to Jayne that just the moment she got upset or angry about anything, her folks was all for doping her up and getting her out of everyone’s sight, including their own.

Jayne wouldn’t treat an animal that way, nevermind a person, not a decent person or a sick person or whatever. There was folks needed that kind of treatment, deserved it even, but little River weren’t no harm to nobody, not most of the time. Far as he knew, he and Nancy were here to take care when she did lose her mind some, keep her from hurting herself or others, calm her down and all. Seemed he didn’t have that quite right, since her parents had other ideas.

All this was going around in Jayne’s head as he took himself for a quick shower and cleaned and bound the wounds he’d gotten himself in his fight. ‘Twas a shame the way things had turned out, since River had been so happy looking just before all hell broke loose. She was all kinds of pretty, he weren’t blind to it, but to see her dance the way she had been, well, that brought a whole other level of beauty to her.

She moved like a dream, all rhythm and poise. Reminded Jayne of martial arts sorta, only she never made contact with no-one to hurt them. She was quick with the learnin’, fluid with the movement, and a smile as wide as any canyon had been sat on her face the whole entire time. Made Jayne smile his ownself just thinking on it, til he recalled what came after.

Cuts and bruises he could deal with. He paid no mind to pain he suffered, he’d learned to let it slide by just as easy as water off a duck’s be-hind. It was her being hurt that bothered him, and for the life of him Jayne couldn’t figure on why. Maybe ‘cause River was just an innocent little thing, weren’t like she asked for the mixed up go-se in her head that made her act the way she did sometimes. Weren’t as if she wanted to act that way nor get locked away from the sight of others by her ass-hole folks...

Jayne looked up sharply from the bandage he’d been fixing on his arm as a thought struck him. Nancy had been so bothered by the idea of the Tam Seniors finding out about River’s episode that first night he’d been here in the house. There was genuine fear in the maid’s eyes when she talked about it, that had made all the hairs on the back of Jayne’s neck stick up. They was doing almost the exact same thing, now that he thought on it, and he didn’t waste a moment in fastening the safety pin on his bandage and getting to moving.

Careful not to be seen by too many folk, most especially Mr and Mrs Tam, he made his way down the hall, up the back staircase towards River’s room. He’d figured out all the best and quickest routes around the house. Given how rich and fanciful the family was and the way River acted up sometimes, there was a chance, no matter how small, that maybe folks would come looking to rob the house, maybe kidnap the girl, or some such. He wanted to know he could get where he needed to as easy and quick as possible. Turned out such a thing was good for avoiding the people who’s house it was too if’n he wanted it that way.

Up on the landing outside of River’s room, Jayne checked right and left and found himself to be alone. Quiet as a mouse, which was a clever trick for a man his size, the bodyguard slipped over to the door and put his hand to the knob, turning it carefully. It moved half way around and stopped - locked.

Something snapped inside of Jayne as his blood started boiling in his veins. Her folks locked her up, like she was some animal or criminal. River was a person, a girl with feelings and all. Sure she had her moments when she was kinda out of control, but that weren’t no reason to put her in chains.

“Jayne?” the voice beside him made his head snap around, eyes still full of fire and fists curling of their own accord - it sure made Nancy back up a step.

“You knew,” he said, not a question or even an accusation so much as just a statement of fact.

“They do it every time,” the maid told him with a nod, clearly shaken by the way he was glaring at her. “They can’t handle Miss River’s temper when she gets that way. Every time, they make me dope her, and I can’t say no. How can I?”

Jayne looked away from her, partly because he knew he was scaring her and he never meant to do that. At the same time, he was mad at her, even though he knew she couldn’t help what she was made to do. Work weren’t easy to come by on a place like this if you got a name for not taking orders an’ all, least that’s how Jayne reckoned it worked. ‘Sides, Nancy loved River, he could tell, and since the little woman trusted the maid, it at least meant she must know she meant her no harm.

If the Tams said jump, them folks that worked for them asked ‘how high?’ and Jayne could see why that worked. He had it good here and he didn’t want to screw that up. At the same time, he weren’t so sure he could live with this, knowing the girl he was here to protect and all was being abused the worst of all by her on folks. It was a lot to think about, and that weren’t exactly a strong point for a fella like Jayne.

“You got a key?” he asked Nancy on the off chance, already pretty sure she was going to say no.

Sure enough, the maid shook her head, looking as if she was going to burst into tears any second.

“They’re afraid of her,” she explained. “Her own folks, they just... they don’t know how else to deal with how she gets sometimes.”

“They want to be afraid o’ somethin’,” said Jayne menacingly, “oughta pick somethin’ worth fearin’.”

* * *

The idea had been swimming around in Jayne’s head for a half hour, and every time it floated to the top he had to force it back down that bit harder til it was drowned. Sure, beating on Gabriel Tam til he stopped movin’ would make him feel better, but it wouldn’t help matters any in the grand scheme o’ things.

Weren’t much like Jayne to think like this about the future. ‘Course he never much figured on having one that meant anything to no-one. The work he did up to now always had dangers and risks. There was a chance he’d go into a job just fine and dandy, and come out of it with one too many holes or wounds in his flesh. Somethin’ vital got pierced, he was gone and that was that. Death didn’t scare Jayne Cobb, though obviously he tried to avoid it. That task seemed it was gonna be a whole bushel full of easier since he got a job at the Tam house. Watching over one little woman when she went a-wanderin’ and such seemed like the easiest free room and board Jayne ever had the whole course of his life.

Wouldn’t be long afore he had money enough for himself, his folks, and everything, with no worries about what happened in his future. Course now, Jayne was wonderin’ if he could stay here at all. Lashing out at the Tams ‘cause they locked up their daughter would get his ass fired. Sure’n he could get another job easy enough, but this one was a little too comfy to toss aside without a thought. Good money, good eats, good digs, and a pretty easy life up to now.

Then there was the girl to think on. River weren’t right in the head, but he weren’t scared of her nor nothing. Her fits and episodes weren’t her fault, just like a symptom of a sickness she had or something that was done to her. Jayne didn’t understand the whys and wherefores and had no need to, but he had promised to do his darndest to protect her, promised Simon and the girl herself.

Not just that, but Jayne found his own conscience, the one he sometimes forget he had, was rearing its Ma-looking head and fighting against him too. He wondered if’n he could really leave here, walk outta this house and never think to look back, all the time knowing that without him watching out for her, the little woman could get in even worse trouble than she already was. Plus her folks could do just whatever they pleased, locking her up, chaining her down, maybe somethin’ worse if things got bad, especially with Simon away.

Jayne close his eyes tight shut against the images his gorram imagination could conjure. He didn’t want to think about how bad things could get without him here, or how bad things might’ve been before. All he could do was his job, and try to work whatever parts he could to his advantage. He weren’t much of a learned man, if Jayne Cobb had wanted schoolin’ he’d’ve gone to school, but he weren’t stupid either, just ‘cause folks assumed he was. Tam had a key to lock River in her room, so as her bodyguard it made sense to Jayne he oughta have a key too, ‘specially when the folks was gonna be away so long. It was a good plan, so he thought, ‘cept when he come to his meeting with Gabriel Tam and put the idea to him, the boss didn’t looks too happy about it.

“I hardly think that would be necessary,” he said, looking down his nose at Jayne, but then the man was used to that and it didn’t bother him none.

“You reckon she’s so dangerous and all.” The bodyguard shrugged. “I can handle her, you knows it, but we got a place to put her when she’s pitchin’ a fit, seems to me I oughta be able to put her there just the same as you when you ain’t around to do it... or maybe you don’t really trust me to do my job right?” he asked, only half faking when he let the idea he might just leave here and now float into Gabriel Tam’s head.

Sure’n Jayne didn’t wanna go, but he was pretty sure the risk was small. They needed someone to take care of the feng-le little woman, now more’n ever with Simon gone and these two wantin’ out on their vacation tonight. Jayne was already here and proved himself trustworthy so far. Make Gabriel much dumber than the man he was facing if he let him to go now.

“Very well,” he said after a pregnant pause. “I see no reason for two keys, but you may take mine whilst myself and my wife are away,” he gave in, pulling a chain from his pocket and unlatching the key that locked River’s bedroom door from the outside.

“Thank ya, sir.” The bodyguard grinned perhaps too much as he turned to walk out the door. “You have yourself a good time on your trip now,” he added as he left.

Outside the office door, Jayne could hardly believe how stupid some folks could be. Not that he would do such a thing, but this idiot had just given him every kinda opportunity to make use of his daughter in all manner o’ nasty ways. Jayne weren’t that person, not even a little, but Gabriel didn’t know that for sure.

As it was, he only wanted this key to do good with, ‘cause bein’ in charge of it meant that poor girl weren’t ever gonna be locked up like some rabid animal. She weren’t that. She weren’t right neither, but she weren’t no dangerous creature needed chaining down. River was a person, somewhere underneath all the fei-oo that had happened to her, all the lies and tricks that had scrambled her brain. Jayne was gonna see to it she was treated like one, to take care o’ her just like he was paid to do, and promised Simon he would. Just like his battered and worn conscience demanded of him.


	8. Chapter 8

Things seemed to be ever changing at the Tam house. Every time Jayne thought he knew how things was gonna be there, they up and switched themselves around again, leaving him baffled. Sure’n the changes of late had been for the better, but that weren’t entirely the point.

It was almost a week now since the elder folks had left for some vacation trip kind of a thing, and Jayne couldn’t say he was sorry to have them gone. This whole break they was taking was due to take up the better part of a month at least, and that suited him just fine. With her Ma and Pa away, River was a different person, not entirely different but enough that Jayne could easily notice it. This whole seven days together she hadn’t had not one of her episodes nor nothin’. She’d been happy as a clam for the most part, and Jayne had the easiest of times lookin’ out for her.

They went into town once, down to the marketplace for her to pick out books and such she wanted. There weren’t but a hint of trouble caused as she calmly chose her purchases, paid the sellers, and came right back home. Made her bodyguard smile to see her so happy and contented, though on the inside he was screaming with anger at her folks.

Fact she was just pleased as punch to be without them proved that havin’ them home with her made her worse. The way they treated her didn’t help none, just made her act out all the more. Jayne didn’t wonder on why, he hadn’t the brains to understand psychology and all, but he knew that being locked in a room weren’t gonna improve nobody’s mood when they got a mind to be mad anyhow.

It occurred to him that he should maybe ask River about her folks and the way they was with her. He wanted to know if she realised they bolted her door when she was having a good old crazy time. The way she lost control, he woulda doubted it, but then she was giddy as any normal girl might be since they was gone. That had to mean they treated her just as bad as he thought, and that River knew about it too.

“She sees it,” said the very girl he was thinking on, without ever turning to see Jayne stood there in the doorway watching her.

“Ain’t right nice to be callin’ me an ‘it’, girly,” he told her, frowning some ‘cause he never had figured on how she always knew he was there, even when he’d made no sound and she never once looked his way.

“She sees it within him,” she amended so he would understand, still sat just the same in the middle of the living room rug, colouring her same picture without stopping, waiting for him to come to her, he assumed.

“You ever gonna bother to make any sense?” asked Jayne as he pushed off the wall by the door and wandered in, walking around to sit down on a chair the other side of her.

“Seems unlikely.” River smiled the way only she could as she peered up at him from behind a curtain of hair, before going right back to her picture.

Jayne leaned over some to see what she was doing, a pretty picture of them wooden dolls that fit one inside the other. Hell, if the girl weren’t just the perfect little artist, on top of everything else he knew her to be good at. It was weird sometimes to think that this was the same girl that raged against him like some wild animal when she had a mind to. Right now she was all sweet and calm and such. Times she made Jayne think on how her name best suited her above all others. Calm and flat and even as the water in a stream when she was like this, but then the current got strong and the weather whipped up the water in a frenzy that’d drown a man just as easy as lyin’.

“She knows,” she said, startling him from his thoughts, as she laid down her coloured pencil and looked up at him. “She knows he doesn’t understand, can’t comprehend.” She shook her head, looking just a little nervous under his gaze as she pulled her legs underneath her body a little more, leaning back against the base of the armchair opposite his own.

“You callin’ me dumb?” he asked, more amused than angry since he was pretty sure she wasn’t saying that at all, just getting the words messed like so often happened with her.

She smiled too at that, only because she knew he was teasing her. River also knew, better than anyone else perhaps, that Jayne was far from dumb. He was smarter than her in certain terms, knew the world in ways she never could. She could know all the math and science in the ‘verse, probably did too, but she hadn’t lived in the world enough to learn how it really, truly worked.

Of course, none of this was the point to what she had been trying to say, and unless she did her level best to explain, Jayne would remained baffled by her situation. She wanted him to know, wanted him to see what she was, who she was, how things had come to this. The words were all there in her head, screaming to be set free, but anything that tumbled from her lips these days was faulty, unreliable. River knew she was wrong, knew there was too much in her that was damaged, but she tried her best to be the girl everybody wanted, not the thing created by monsters.

“Cracks in the walls,” she said vaguely, her smile wavering. “Let the water in, push the girl out,” she continued, one hand going to her head, fingers tangling in her hair, looking like a spider crawling across her scalp. “She tries but... but sense goes away, sun goes down and-”

“Hey,” the sharpness of Jayne speaking and his hand at her elbow made River stop, looking from the nothingness her eyes had found to focus on and shifting to his expression of concern.

River hadn’t noticed her own hair coming away in her hand until then, and she frowned at the realisation of it. Swallowing down the bile in her throat, she moved her hand away, guided by Jayne’s own on her arm, allowing long strands of chocolate brown to slide down onto her drawing paper.

“Makers are afraid,” she said, staring down at her own hair, forming abstract patterns on the page. “She isn’t what they wanted, what they sent away for improvement. She returned worse, broken, fractured...” she explained as best she could, turning desperate eyes on Jayne, imploring him to understand her, even though she knew she was making much less sense than she ought to.

“Your folks,” he said slowly, retracting his hand from her arm then as if he’d only just realised he put it there and that maybe he shouldn’t have. “They ain’t scared o’ you.” He shook his head, though he knew she was perfectly right.

“Liar.” She laughed shakily, painfully. “Not their fault, nor hers, nor his,” she rambled on, shifting her body, pulling her knees up to her chest and holding on tight. “She sees their fear and she knows... comprehends, because she feels it. Like knives to her heart and buzzing in her head,” she almost whispered as if she would cry, but no tears ever came. “She scares herself,” she said then, flat and cold and sad as anything as she looked up at Jayne once more.

He swallowed hard though he told himself it wasn’t because he was getting emotional nor nothing. He was a man and a stronger one than most, he weren’t gonna cry for no little woman who’s parent didn’t care enough for her. Truth of it was he just wanted to tear them folks limb from limb for making her feel so bad.

“Well, I ain’t scared of ya,” he told her plain, glad of the smile that curved her lips as she looked at him.

She studied him a good long minute before she spoke again.

“She knows,” said River eventually, bouncing her head in a slight nod. “When she does not remember herself, he still sees, helps to find the girl inside when she is drowning in herself,” she explained, albeit not much of an explanation for Jayne since it was all a riddle to him, and he hadn’t ever been good with those. “She appreciates his clearness of sight,” she continued, pulling herself up on her knees before him, face almost level with his own now as he leant over on his knees in the chair. “She loves him for it.” She smiled widely, planting a kiss on his cheek before Jayne ever had a chance to react.

Eyes wide as anything and a look of shock on his features, the bodyguard was about to ask her what the gorram hell that was all about. He never got the chance though as River was suddenly on her feet and half way to the door. A maid met her from the hallway, telling her what she already seemed to know, that Simon was on the phone and wanted to say hello.

Jayne watched the little woman scamper away, looking a whole heap happier than she had been when he came and sat down here. Honest to goodness, he hadn’t an idea how much of her good mood had come out of her brother calling her, and how much he’d conjured in her his ownself. Never much occurred to Jayne he was the type to put smiles on the faces of crying women with words alone, and yet somehow he’d done it.

River was the darndest female he ever had met yet, and he’d met a fair few in his time. Times were he thought she was a whole lot smarter than him, despite being just half his age or less. She could be such a kid, and other times he saw a woman desperate to be grown and free. She was... what was that word she used for him one time? An enigma, that was it. A puzzle or riddle or some such that he couldn’t figure out no matter how much he tried it.

Course the biggest mystery to him was how the girl could be scared of her folks, scared of herself even, and yet trust him so gorrram much. Not that Jayne weren’t to be trusted. Sure’n he’d been caught for some thievery in his time, but he was paid enough coin here, there weren’t no call for crapping in his own back yard that way. As for womenfolk, well, it seemed to be a given that he weren’t gonna try nothing with River, and though it were true enough that he wouldn’t, surely it oughta cross somebody’s mind, he reckoned.

Weren’t as if she wasn’t of age and pretty and all, and just now hadn’t she been kissing on him, telling him she loved him? That was the most unsettling part o’ all this Jayne reckoned. Girl like her shouldn’t say that kinda thing to a fella she didn’t know so well. A couple of weeks in this house together, having to stick like glue the way they did, they got to know each other and all. Still, weren’t right for her to behave that way with him, not unless she had designs that a little woman like her shouldn’t be having.

Jayne shoved the thoughts out of his head. He had no romantic notions about the girl, and didn’t want her for no sexual favours neither. That was what whores was for after all. ‘Sides he weren’t no monster who took advantage of women who didn’t want him or didn’t know their own mind well enough to tell if they did. Let her have her little crush or some such, whatever it was she might be getting. Didn’t bother him none, he just weren’t interested.

* * *

As a general rule, staff at the Tam house all ate together, all the maids, butlers, drivers and such. Security was a separate affair and had their own arrangements but Jayne being a particular type of security and more like a part of the household than the rest, he was allowed to sit with the rest of the staff at their table each breakfast, lunch, and dinner, whenever he weren’t needed by River for nothing anyhow. Right now she was sleeping, or she was supposed to be given the late hour, and Jayne and the rest of the working folks was sat down to dinner.

“This here’s good pie, Mrs P,” he complimented the cook, an older woman that reminded him or his Ma. “Almost as good as home,” he told her, around a mouthful of said food.

“Very kind o’ you to say, Mr Cobb, I am sure.” She smiled in return, though was a little undewhelmed at the way in which he’d said it.

Old Mrs Patter liked to think she was a little above everybody else here, maybe ‘cause she was older or ‘cause she’d been at the house longest, Jayne weren’t sure. Didn’t bother him none that she had airs and graces or whatnot, though her son was a real pain in the pigu. He was one of the butler types here at the Tam’s house and fancied himself in charge o’ everybody else, even though it weren’t even so. Jayne took a dislike to the fella just as much as Barnes Patter had to him, though they made sure not to come to blows. Barnes knew he’d lose and Jayne knew he’d get fired, weren’t worth it to either of them, that was for sure.

Of course, up to now they just shot barbs and dirty looks at each other, minding their manners in front of the boss and just wishing the other would stay out of his way as much as possible. Today was gonna be different, Jayne didn’t know it right yet as he sat eating his meal, but he was about to, as Barnes appeared and sat down at the opposite end of the table, thanking his Ma for the food she put before him.

“Gotta say this place runs a might smoother when the Master and Mistress take their vacation.” He sighed, getting comfortable in his seat.

“Sure is quiet now without them and the young doctor too,” one of the older maids named Sally agreed. “At least when Miss River isn’t causing a fuss.”

Jayne’s eyes shot up from his plate to glare at her then. He didn’t much like when conversation turned to the little woman, most especially when it was about the episodes and fits she couldn’t help. He could defend her honour and all if’n he had too, put these folks in their place, but he’d sooner have a quiet life, sooner they didn’t talk about her at all.

“Ooh, Sally, better watch what you say there.” Barnes chuckled. “Cobb’s getting a little twitchy with you talking about his girl like that.”

“Ain’t my woman to be gettin’ twitchy over,” sneered Jayne. “Just don’t reckon on biting the hand that feeds me, if you catch my drift.”

“Yes, of course,” replied Barnes with a hard look. “Miss River is a woman, young as she might be. Strange that you should be the one to notice, Cobb,” he said with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “I wonder if you haven’t thought on worse than biting where she’s concerned... pretty little thing like her, all whimsical in the head and such. Bet you could find all manner of uses for her-”

The sound of Jayne’s chair scraping noisily against the floor cut out any further words Barnes planned on saying. The angry fire lighting up the bodyguard’s eyes made everyone wary, and in fairness even the butler looked a little taken aback by it. If he didn’t know better he’d think Cobb was about to kill him, though he was banking on the fact he wouldn’t actually dare.

“Barnes, you mind your tongue at this dinner table,” his mother warned him then, looking between her son and his apparent enemy. “Jayne Cobb, why don’t you sit down and finish your dinner?” she advised.

“Ain’t hungry no more,” he growled, before turning and stalking out of the room.

Every other person around the table let out a collective breath then that the moment was over, whilst Barnes grumbled and muttered about people who couldn’t take a joke. Weren’t no laughing matter, of course, not the kinds of things he’d been suggesting, which was why Jayne headed off to his room seething still. He never thought of River that way, not ever, and yet now the idea had been put in his head, it bothered him some that he wouldn’t be able to shift it.


	9. Chapter 9

Jayne was absolutely seething after his confrontation with Barnes Patter. Stupid-ass butler thought he was something special, but hell if he wouldn’t be dead by now if Jayne were anywhere but here. As it was, he didn’t fancy getting fired right about now, or worse locked up. He was a professional of course, he could have that hwun dahn buried six feet under where nobody’d find him and be off this rock afore the law could even be called, but Jayne could use not having another planet he darne’t come back to. ‘Sides, leaving now meant leaving River unprotected and he just couldn’t do that either.

“Gorram girl!” he cursed, as he punched the wall hard enough to dent the plaster.

Somehow she’d got under his skin, and in ways Jayne never did expect. The things that Barnes was saying weren’t true, not at all, though coming right after the little woman talking of loving him and such, it made the cogs in Jayne’s head turn to directions he never thought on before and didn’t wanna be thinking on now!

Sure’n she was a pretty little thing, but half his age and brain-adled, which meant out of bounds for Jayne. ‘Course she was smarter than him, and when she was sane and all she could act just as grown up as anybody he knew. Age weren’t to be worried on when folks was in love, so his Ma said. After all, there was ten year at least ‘tween his own folks and Jayne never paid much mind to that.

These thoughts pulled the bodyguard up sharp. He stopped pacing the corridor and met his own gaze in the mirror across the way. He was thinking about love and River in the same sentence. There had to be something wrong with him! Sure’n he cared for her, wanted to keep her safe, but that was his job more’n anything else, and a need to keep his promises to her and Simon both. She talked about loving him for bein’ the only one not to be scared of her nor treat her like a raving animal just ‘cause she got outta control from time to time. River couldn’t really know what love was, Jayne told himself, not really, but then she was the one they called genius.

Shaking his head clear of such nonsense, Jayne carried himself back to his room now, sure that was the safest place to go. He hadn’t gone there immediately because honestly he was seriously considering going back into the staff kitchen and tearing Patter a new one, or maybe just getting out of this house for the rest of the night. In the end, he knew holing up in his own space til the angry mood passed was safer for everybody, himself included. This he had thought until he opened the door to his room and found his bed less than empty.

“Ai-yah tien-ah...” he swore, checking nobody was around and shutting the bedroom door fast. “What the garranm hell you think you’re doin’, girly?!”

“The night pictures came,” explained River from her place beneath the sheets. “Darker and darker still... She sought out her protector, from the monsters,” she explained, eyes snapping up to meet his then.

It was only as Jayne cautiously approached the bed that he realised she was shaking like a leaf, despite the fact it was nothing like cold tonight. He wanted to yell at her for being so dumb as to come here, since they was both likely to land up in all kinds of trouble, but the sight of her so scared, the shake in her voice that betrayed so much fear, he just couldn’t do it.

“You can’t be here,” he told her anyway. “Ain’t no monsters in this house right now, only in your gorram head,” he reminded her, pulling the sheets off her and planning to tell her to git already.

Problem was, just as soon as the covers was moved, he saw rather a lot more of River than he planned. The night dress she wore might’ve covered her back-side, right down to her knees even when she was standing, but curled up as she was now, knees pulled into her chest, meant all Jayne could see was mile long legs and silky underthings that didn’t belong on no child. ‘Course this was the very thing needed to add fuel to a fire already in him, a whole mess of thoughts on how she weren’t so much a kid at all. Hell, there was girls back home married younger than her, having kids o’ their own. Sure’n that weren’t so much how it was done on these fancy Core planets, but at seventeen, Jayne was pretty sure any normal girl’d be called a young woman and sent to balls and parties for courtin’ and all. ‘Course, them thoughts weren’t much helpin’ right now.

“She is sorry if her presence offends,” said River, voice shaking as much as her shoulders as she looked fit to burst into tears any second. “but she forgets... impropriety can’t be quantified in the dark, the darkness,” she started muttering to herself, burying her face in her hands as she cried.

Jayne felt bad for her, of course he did, but that didn’t make him any more or less comfortable about this situation, her sat in his own bed dressed or rather undressed as she was, with the whole staff of the house right there down the hall and more’n one already wondering what designs he might have on the little woman.

“Listen here, girly,” he said, considering touching her but retracting his hand from her arm just a second after his fingers made brief contact with her elbow, gaining her attention. “Whatever nightmare you been havin’, it’s over now. So you go on back where you come from and sleep some more, so as I can do the same,” he advised her.

Jayne had hoped she’d take heed and just do as she was told. Unfortunately, River’s mood swings was just about as unpredictable as any flowing body of water itself might be. As her name suggested, she was just that changeable, and potentially that dangerous he reckoned, as she peeked at him from between her fingers.

“Not little sister,” she told him, a lot bolder and stronger than she had been just seconds before. “Not to be sent away with milk and cookies to ride her unicorn to dreams,” she argued, her hands dropping away from her face as she shifted from sitting and up onto her knees.

Jayne backed up a step, though he barely realised he’d done it, concentrating more on looking to her face and not her semi-naked body in fabric too thin and pale to hide much. Made the bodyguard wonder if’n she had any idea ‘bout what was she was doing, as she tilted her head to one side and stared at him like a science project, before a smile started to curve her lips.

“He appreciates the view,” she said smartly, as if she’d read thoughts clean out of Jayne’s head.

Sure’n there was nothin’ at all clean about where his mind was wishing to wander to, though the poor guy was doing his level best to fight the urges he was having right about now. He heard what she said, about not being his sister, and that was true enough, though Simon had expressed a wish for him to be River’s pseudo-brother in the absence of the real thing.

Thinking on the Doc soon put paid to any thoughts that didn’t ought to be in Jayne’s head where this little woman was concerned. Him and the folks that locked her up like an animal when she got it into her head to behave like a wild cat. Made him mad, made him want to swing for every person that ever hurt this girl, but also served to remind him he was the only person who cared much to protect River right now. That certainly put paid to any fleeting thoughts that may have crossed his mind about taking any kind of advantage of her.

“Yeah well, what he ‘ppreciates most is you gettin’ gone,” he said, perhaps a little too snippily given the circumstances, but the faster the girl was outta his sight, the better off Jayne would feel, in more ways than one.

“Not true, not really.” She smiled in such a way as she had no business doing as far as Jayne was concerned. “She could stay a while,” she offered, even as she slid from the bed, landing on her feet in front of her bodyguard, not looking any the less desirable for more of her being covered up in the movement.

Jayne swallowed hard. ‘Twas taking all his resolve in this moment not to do something gorram stupid, and if’n he didn’t know better he’d say River was all too aware of the thoughts he was trying to push aside, the feelings she was causing in him that he was fighting with all the strength he had.

“Get outta here!” he told her, too loudly, too angrily, and he knew it, but it was that or stand to ruin everything. “I ain’t a man to be messed around with, girly, and you’s tryin’ my patience!” he said crossly as he marched over to the door and opened it up for her. “Now git! Before you really damage my calm,” he warned her.

River was taken aback by the severity of his tone, to the point that tears he had hoped were gone now began re-forming in her eyes. Still, Jayne wasn’t about to back down. He had strength enough in muscle and bone, but inside he wasn’t half so tough. She kept up with her attempts at seducin’ him or whatever the hell it was the little woman was tryin’ to do, hell, if Jayne weren’t gonna do something they both ended up regretting in the big picture.

“Thought he cared,” said River, sad and angry both, and it showed clearly on her face. “Just like all the rest,” she cried as she bolted from the room.

Jayne bit his lip and shut his eyes tight as she ran by him, letting the door slam shut in her wake. He wanted to go after her, wanted to apologise for being so mean to her, bring her some comfort and... yeah, he wanted a lot more than that, but it was best not to think on it, that he knew more’n anything else. The girl had no business comin’ down here and offering herself up like that. Oughta count herself lucky he had enough will power to send her away afore his base instincts took over.

‘Course that didn’t stop Jayne hating himself for making River cry. Womenfolk didn’t oughta have reason for tears, that was how he saw it, but sometimes it was the lesser of two evils. Sometimes Jayne wondered if he had it in him to be real evil. He’d kill a man given a reason too, get into a fight for less, but anybody he took on deserved what they had coming to them, or so he told himself. River was innocent, whatever was wrong with her had been done to her, and besides which she never did him no harm, never meant to hurt anybody, not really, or so he reckoned. Hell, if she hadn’t caused him some hurt just now, though he couldn’t quite figure on whether she knew it or not.

River did know it, knew it so much she couldn’t breathe. Yes, the running from Jayne’s room to her own had taken her breath away to a degree, but more so the intensity of what had passed between them was what had her gasping for air. She never felt that way before, never wanted something she couldn’t have so very much. Entering the Academy a child, she had emerged a young woman and yet had only education in academics and darkness. Ways of the world, the way men and women behaved towards each other, these were things nobody ever took the time to speak of with the wayward little woman upstairs.

Her back to the closed bedroom door, River’s eyes drifted back over her shoulder the way she had come, and then to the floor through which she was sure she could still feel the presence of her Jayne-man. A bodyguard, that was all he was, an employee of the house, and yet from the beginning she had seen so much more than that. Her body did not wish for him to guard it but to touch, to feel, to want, to love. One who usually ran from contact craved it where her protector was concerned, trusted him in such ways she could not quantify after so short an acquaintance.

There was a great deal River knew, and yet a great deal she did not understand. The most curious thing for a genius was to have no way of makings sense of the world from day to day, a cruel punishment for crimes never committed. All River would really understand right now was that there was one man in the world that could make her feel whatever this was inside her right now, and that was Jayne Cobb.

Had he wanted to take her, to have his way with her there in his bed, she would have let him. She understood the science of what would take place and she was not afraid of it, though the details she would have to learn, of course. The problem had not been her but him, and yet she was sure he wanted just exactly what she did.

Where this need to be close to him in such a way had come from, River could not accurately determine. The data she had to work with was only the inner workings of her mind, and at best it was scrambled beyond recognition. As for Jayne’s mind, there was a comfort to be found in the simplicity of the thought patterns and easy logic, except for tonight. He wanted her and yet he would not take her, would rather yell until she cried and send her away still yearning.

Throwing herself quite literally onto her bed, River pulled the covers around her thin frame that no longer shook with fear of nightmares already faded out to nothing. Instead she shivered with a new kind of sensation that was far from unpleasant. Jayne had looked at her as a woman, as an object of desire, and it had made her feel powerful in a way she never knew she could. He was to be more than her protector, she always knew it, but now she felt as if she was beginning to unravel just exactly what his purpose was here. He was to be hers and hers alone, however long the path might be to take them to that point. Better yet, she was to be his, to belong with him only, to be at his side and find her place in the ‘verse right there.

River went back to sleep, this time with a smile on her lips, and much more pleasant dreams to see her through til morning.


	10. Chapter 10

River loved to dance, it was one thing from childhood that she still enjoyed, that had not been ill-effected by her time at the Academy. She still recalled every step she had learnt, from ballet to tap to ballroom, and she practised alone and unnoticed much of the time. The staff said nothing when they did spot her, prancing on the landings, twirling on the stairs. One of the best locations she found was the entrance hall, the large open space between the front door and the main stairs. Such a large open area, with little she could damage or run into, it was just about perfect for executing every series of steps and spins she could think of.

It wasn’t often she had an audience, but there was never a time when she wasn’t entirely aware of those watching her. Today she knew she had one man’s attention, as she pirouetted past the stairway and around the entirety of the tiled floor, her dress kicking up around her knees and swirling in a breeze she made with her own motion. Her bodyguard liked to observe, it was how he did his job so well. The Jayne man saw danger when it came, was prepared for all because of it, and yet right now he did not see bad things, he only saw her.

Jayne couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the view, watching River dance like this. She looked happy and that worked for him, much better than seeing her all teary-eyed or afraid as she was often enough. Her folks being away seemed to help a lot with that, though Jayne himself had caused her latest upset, turning her out of his bed a few nights ago. He never did mean to hurt her, but he was liable to end up doing worse if he let her stay, all doe-eyed and half dressed as she was.

She might think she was willing for whatever he wanted, but he knew better. Jayne Cobb was a man of the world, in more ways than one. Little River was just a girl, no matter how womanly she could appear or act at times. She might be a genius in all kinds of ways of book learning and such, but there were things that Jayne had the upper hand in, in which his knowledge far out-weighed hers. He had to keep her at a distance, close enough to protect her but never so close he lost sight of the point of his being here, or risked either of their futures. That couldn’t happen, it just couldn’t, no matter how much he had dreamt about it these past few nights together...

When River suddenly stopped dancing in the centre of the floor and turned to stare at him, Jayne felt sure the little genius had read his thoughts clean out of his head. He hadn’t an idea what her reaction might be if that were so, or how he’d come to think she could even perform such a trick as to know just exactly what he was thinking, but in that moment he really truly believed it. She was holding a pose at mid-turn, just as if someone had hit a button that completely stopped time all around and including her. Jayne found such a thing fascinating for the first minute and then a might concerning if he were truthful.

“You okay there, River girl?” he asked as he came out of his not-so-clever hiding place and approached her with caution.

Given the fits of upset and temper she was prone to, he was mindful of her suddenly going crazy on him somehow. Still she didn’t move as he got closer and closer, daring to reach out a hand to her shoulder when calling her name three and four times did nothing to stir her from a trance. Just before his fingers made contact with her skin she moved, so fast that Jayne himself nearly jumped out of his skin, in spite of how hyper-aware he usually was.

“They’re coming,” she said, backing up towards the staircase, her voice too low to be her own somehow. “They’re coming... won’t stop 'til they get what you took!” she went on to rave as she hurried backwards up the first flight of stairs and gazed down at Jayne with frantic eyes.

“Whatcha talkin’ about now, you crazy...?” he began to ask, only for a stern knock on the door to interrupt his question.

Jayne’s eyes flitted to the door and then back to River who was all but gone from his sight now, alternately muttering and yelling words that made no sense to him.

“Two by two, hands of blue. Two by two, colours new,” she went on as her tiny feet pounded against the hard floor above.

Her bodyguard was caught between a need to see who was beyond the door and a want to run after the little woman and find out what was wrong. It was as if she knew somebody was coming before they ever got here, and whoever it was clearly scared the hell out of her. Sure, he oughta wait for some butler type or house security man to come see who was knocking on this door, but Jayne was right here and he was curious now. He made a snap decision and went for the door, yanking it open so suddenly as the people beyond began to knock again that both near fell in on him.

“What d’ya want?” he asked the two apparent gentlemen in fine suits.

Both looked him over with some distaste, noses in the air like they both had a rod each up their pigu. Jayne disliked them instantly, though to be fair given River’s reaction to them just being on the other side of the door, he didn’t much care for them before he ever saw them.

“We are here to see the family of the house,” one said flatly. “We are expected.”

“Doubt that.” Jayne shook his head, plastering on a grin. “Seein’ as the family o’ the house ain’t here and ain’t comin’ back a good while yet. Could be weeks, maybe a month. You know how it is with rich folks and all,” he told them.

“The whole family has gone away?” the other fella checked, as the first tried to see around the great hulking mass of Jayne in the doorway, unsuccessfully of course.

“Yup, all gone away,” he told them, scratching his bearded chin. “Any message you fancy fellas wanna leave for when they come on home?” he asked, all politeness though the thin veil of a grin on his face made it pretty clear his sarcasm ought to be evident.

“No, thank you, Mr Cobb,” one answered just as politely, as the pair turned on their heel and left.

The second their backs was turned, Jayne was scowling, resisting the urge to go for the gun strapped where nobody knew it existed and taking them both out from behind. The idea was fleeting, he knew he wouldn’t really do it, not least because he had no evidence that these fellas was anything other than a pair of prissy nothings. Sure, River had gone completely feng-le before he even opened the door to them, but then she could do that all by her ownself when the fit took her over. Fact was, Jayne didn’t hardly trust any folks at all, ‘specially not fancy Core fellas that come scaring all hell outta the little woman he was here to protect. Course it just now occurred to him as he stood there thinking on it, one of them had called him Cobb, and yet he didn’t recall giving his name to them at all, just wasn’t somethin’ he did unless he had to. He’d like to ask Simon if he knew what this was all about, these mystery visitors that got his sis so worked up and knew names of folks without asking. In the absence of the Doc, the second best person had to be...

“Nancy?” he called to her as she appeared as if willed to, out of a door across the way.

“Something wrong, Jayne?” she checked with him, as she took in his expression that showed both anger and confusion somehow.

“Two fancy Core fellas in suits was here, askin’ to see the Tams,” he explained, hitching his thumb over his shoulder towards the front door. “Afore I ever even got a look at them, River went all kinds of crazy.”

“Oh, she always does.” Nancy shook her head sadly. “We don’t know exactly who those men are, but they come by regular ever since Miss River got back from her schoolin’ at the Academy,” she explained. “Always two at a time, but never the same pair.”

“They ever get in here?” asked Jayne, not liking the sound of any of this so far, not least because these guys knew his name too and Lord only knew what else.

“When Mr Tam is at home, he’ll talk to them.” The little maid nodded. “But no-one else. Master Simon always turns ‘em away, and like you said, Miss River can’t stand ‘em anywhere close. She near loses her mind about it, poor girl.”

Jayne stood there a moment just staring up the stairway where the little woman had run minutes before. He was mulling all of this over, trying to make sense. All he could come up with was in real simple terms, but then that was all the bodyguard ever really dealt in anyhow. Far as he could tell, Simon and River was good people, as much as anybody ever was, but their folks was far from it. Seemed to him this Academy place the little woman had been sent to done her way more harm than good, and if them fellas that come visiting had anything to do with it, well, then he couldn’t hardly blame her for being scared outta her wits.

Jayne vaguely heard Nancy say she had to be getting along as he continued to wonder on where he went from here. Protecting River was his job, but no woman nor job was worth this much trouble, he reckoned. Them men, whoever they was, seemed to be bad news and they knew his name and where he worked these days. Seemed to him getting out now and saving his own hide might just be the best of a plan he could conjure. Still, somehow the idea of up and leaving just didn’t sit right with him. Weren’t the little woman’s fault she was damaged or whatever, nor her doing that these fellas was after her, at least it seemed to Jayne that was how things stood right now.

It also occurred to Jayne, as he went for the stairs and took them easily two at a time, that his thoughts about leaving here had come second to keeping River safe. What was happening to him he hadn’t an idea, but it seemed to Jayne that this little woman was getting under his skin somehow. Before this, the only time he had for women was a good time and that he had to pay for. Never was somebody in his life he wanted to take care of so much, nor that confounded him quite like River could.

Outside her bedroom door, he stopped short of knocking. He hadn’t a clue how to talk to her right now, and yet there was nothing else he could do. After all, he ought to check she was okay, hadn’t hurt herself or nothin’ when she flew into her crazy fit before. The point of all this was that her safety and happiness mattered most.

“Hey, girly?” he called as he knocked and immediately opened the door without ever waiting for an invitation.

River was sat in the middle of the rug on the floor, counting over the glass beads she was so fond of. She was as calm as any person could ever be about anything, a far cry from the fit she’d pitched in the entrance way just minutes before. ‘Course, Jayne was getting used to the little woman’s mood-swings, and less and less bothered by them, he found, as time went on.

“They’re gone,” she said flatly, never turning to look his way. “She thanks you for that,” she added in much the same tone.

Jayne frowned some at her odd behaviour. Sure, he was used to the up and down moods, but he didn’t like that she wouldn’t look at him right now, like she had something to be ashamed of, or as if he’d done something wrong maybe. Whichever or whatever it was, he wasn’t standing for it, that was for gorram sure. Striding around her he came to crouch in front of where she sat, staring until she had to look up and meet his eyes.

“He sees it.” She smiled then, a strangely sad smile that he couldn’t understand. “She says too much and now he knows, inside and out.”

There was no way in the ‘verse Jayne could untangle what the girl was blathering on about. Sometimes he got it these days, but right now he was at a loss. Whatever it was she thought he saw, she clearly knew it without him saying. The light dawned then that this was the very thing River was telling him, and it showed on his face as he stared at her.

“You get inside folks' heads, dont’cha?” he checked, leaning back away from her almost imperceptibly, but she noticed. “Know what their thinking without them ever saying?”

She didn’t answer that, just stared back at him unwavering. Whether Jayne knew it or not, River was testing him. She never told him she had any particular abilities or gifts, she let him figure it out for himself to see how smart he really was underneath rippling muscle and ape-like appearance. Her parents were scared of the person she had become, this they both knew, and it remained to be seen if Jayne was strong enough inside as well as out to deal with what she was now.

“He calls her a Reader,” she stated easily. “Interesting theory,” she declared, never making to clear if he was correct or not as she got to her feet so suddenly Jayne almost toppled over from his crouched position at the suprise movement. “She would like more beads from the market,” River told him then, as if the conversation they’d been having was completely normal and her ending it in such a way was acceptable.

Jayne got to his feet and continued to stare at her. She really was such a riddle of a woman, that was for gorram sure. A half hour ago she was dancing around like a real ballerina type, the next minute running scared yelling like the devil himself was knocking at her door. Now she was normal as normal could be, which was better for all concerned, and yet left Jayne baffled beyond all doubt.

“Y’ain’t gonna explain it to me, are ya?” he realised with a smile he couldn’t help at the gall she showed. “Ain’t gonna tell me ‘bout those hwun-dahns who come looking for your folks nor how come y’always know stuff outta peoples heads ‘fore they say it,” he realised aloud.

River fixed him with a look that he couldn’t read then turned to lead the way out of her room, throwing a quote over her shoulder as she went;

“Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.”

Now what in the gorram ‘verse was Jayne supposed to make of that?


	11. Chapter 11

Jayne Cobb was confused, which was a pretty normal feeling for the guy given that he wasn’t actually known for his brains so much as his brawn. He was smart enough to know that when he was offered a not small amount of coin plus free bed, board, and meals just for watching over one seventeen year old little woman, he had to say yes. He weren’t dumb enough to say anything else to an offer like that, perhaps one of the easiest jobs he’d ever been given and for some of the best take too. Course, as time went on, Jayne weren’t so sure he hadn’t been horn-swaggled somewhere along the line.

River weren’t no ordinary young woman, that he knew for sure. She weren’t right in the head exactly, though maybe she weren’t quite as crazy as folks thought. There was times these days he could make near perfect sense outta her ramblin’ and he seemed to be learnin’ what it was that sent her off into one of her fits and all. He figured that, much like her brother Simon, it was taking the time to bother to notice that did it, where her parents never paid no mind. Gabriel and Regan seemed all kindsa happy just to lock up their daughter like an animal and pretend her problems weren’t even there, and that just made Jayne mad. T’weren’t the proper way to treat a person, not a decent person, ‘specially not a person you were s’posed to love and care about.

Love was a funny thing, and not a thing Jayne knew too much about. He loved his Ma, his sisters and all, like any good son and brother should. Womenfolk he wasn’t related to, well, they was a whole other kettle of fish. He never loved a woman, not like that, not like marryin’ her or nothin’. Sure’n he saw the attractiveness of a female form and paid a pretty penny to get with a fair few, but that was all.

River had said she loved Jayne, though he hadn’t been too sure what she meant by it. Loved him like a brother, loved him like a best friend, those things mighta been easiest to deal with. What bothered Jayne was that there was a chance she was thinkin’ of him in a whole other way, and that idea wouldn’t go away since that night he found her in his bed. The little woman was gorram feng-le and acted like a kid sometimes, but she knew she was a woman, oh yes sir, she knew that. Knew she had curves and all enough to turn a man into jello just as soon as look at ‘em.

The only thing that bothered Jayne more’n the idea River had those kinda feelings for him was that he had any kinda feelings for her. He looked after number one, always had and always would, so he always said. From the day he stepped offa his home planet and left his kinfolk behind, Jayne vowed to worry only about himself, not let any man screw him over, nor any women get under his skin. Now he was finding that when it come to choices and decisions he made, he thought of River afore his ownself, or at least at the same time. She wasn’t second nor further down the list, she was right up there at the top, as much at his side as she was right now, wandering through the marketplace.

It suddenly occurred to Jayne, as some young man tipped River a wink, that he ought to spend less time thinking and more time looking. He was supposed to be her protection here, her bodyguard, and instead he was lettin’ his mind wander on all kinds of things that were doing him no good.

“He is not the culprit,” said River, though she was not looking to Jayne, rather at a pile of books on the nearest stall.

“What you sayin’?” he asked her, as he looked from the lad who had dared smile at his charge and back to the girl in question.

“The boy that smiles and twinkles,” she explained, glancing over her shoulder at Jayne. “He is not the problem, and he should know it. He is the eyes and ears as well as fists and feet that should protect her,” she said, a darkness settling in her eyes then as she shuddered as if cold... or scared maybe?

Baffled Jayne to no end to start off with but he soon caught on as he looked all around them. There was someone else here that was bothering River, just like those men that had come to the house before and sent her spiralling out of control. The kid with the grin would like to get to know her better, but Jayne could knock him into next Thursday with one hand, no trouble at all. There was something else, somebody else, and he cursed himself for having to be told of them by River when he shoulda noticed his ownself.

A familiar face caught Jayne’s eye a few feet away, the body of the same person obscured by the wares of the next stall over. Still, it was plain for the bodyguard to see who he was. His line of work, it paid never to forget a face and this one he knew all well and good. Jayne’s last job for Marco was to track some hwun-dahns who might wanna do his boss harm. One of them had been here the first day he met River and Simon, and he had lost sight of him while saving the little woman from trouble. Another had come at them in the park when she was dancing her heart out, an attack Jayne had easy put paid to but had left him both angry and bleeding.

“Don’t wanna be hangin’ around here too long, girly,” he told River, though his eyes stayed focused on the man who was watching them. “Oughta get you home soon, else have the whole house worryin’ you got kidnapped or some such.”

He tried to make it sound like a joke, as if the idea of her gettin’ took was as crazy as she could sometimes seem, but it didn’t come off and he oughta known it wouldn’t. River was way smarter than she should be and always knew when she was being fed a bunch of fei-oo.

“She complies,” she said, surprising her protector as she put down the book she had been flipping through and looked towards the road that would take them home. “They should go,” she agreed, making Jayne look at her all the more agog as she slid her tiny hand in his and pulled for him to follow her.

All the bodyguard was really interested in was getting the little woman home safe so he tried to pay no mind to how they was getting there. Holding hands was for kids and saps, never once occurred to him to do such a thing with a woman, but he weren’t gonna argue none. He wanted to be back at the house, knowing River was away from whatever or whoever had their beady eyes on her. It was his job to keep her safe, and more than that, he just had a need to for his own peace of mind, though he weren’t about to dwell too much on why that was. Mostly he figured that he felt kinda guilty. It wasn’t an emotion Jayne Cobb was used to but then it did seem to him that he was the cause of this latest stalking. Had to be him they was after, these fellas he’d been tracking for Marco just a few weeks ago. Sure as eggs was eggs, they was out to get him or get to River so as to land him in a whole heap o’ trouble.

It was only when they reached the relative safety of the Tam’s house, with Jayne double-checking the locks on the front door once they was inside, that River spoke up about her own theory on what had happened today at the marketplace. 

“Not his fault,” she told him, hovering too close to him, so that when Jayne turned around from the door he found her right there in front of him. “They do not seek for his sake alone, only for his employ,” she explained, but unfortunately in words that her bodyguard did not entirely understand.

“Employ?” he echoed. “River-girl, I don’t think they’s after my job-” he told her, scratching his bearded chin.

“Exactly what they want,” she interrupted, where most would not, “to make his job much harder, to take away the point of it.”

Jayne couldn’t help but understand what she meant by that, but having her blame herself for what some hwun-dahns from his recent past wanted to do didn’t sit right with him. Besides, he could use her not being scared that even more folks than she knew might be after her.

“Nah, them guay toh guay nowns ain’t after you, bao-bei,” he promised her, not wondering too much on how the term of endearment got jammed on the back of that sentence. “I gots me mixed up with all kindsa folks before I ever come here,” he told her honestly.

River’s reaction was not what he expected, as a burst of laughter escaped her. It was not a sound of amusement, but a painfully twisted noise, almost maniacal.

“So did she,” she told him, eyes turning darker by the second, or so Jayne thought as he stared down into them and couldn’t stop. “Two by two, hands of blue, but soldiers come in brown and pink,” she said, her gaze leaving his own, eyes darting around as if she were starting to panic. “Closer than he could imagine, closer and closer,” she said too quickly, backing up a step and looking ready to go crazy.

Jayne didn’t move, didn’t speak, just kept a careful eye on her as she continued muttering to herself, one hand going to her head. Whether she was going to go off her axle or not, he weren’t entirely certain. Her parents’d have her drugged and chained by now, just in case, but that weren’t the right way to play this thing, Jayne knew. Times like this there was always a chance of River settling again if you just gave her the chance.

“’S okay, girly, ain’t nobody here gonna hurt ya on my watch,” he promised her in as gentle a voice as a man such as him could manage.

The still and quiet of the few moments that followed seemed to do the trick, as River slowly came back from wherever her mind had took a wander to. She looked wide eyed up at Jayne, as if amazed that he had managed to save her from that dark place, and not for the first time.

Breathing more evenly and even finding a feint smile, River was back from the brink, back to the reality of the world around her. She had her protector, her saviour, and she was going to be okay. She nodded her head as if to signify he had achieved his goal and she was fine now. Moving forward, she tip-toed up on ballet points and planted a kiss on a surprised Jayne’s cheek.

“Good night, Man Called Jayne,” she said softly. “She thanks him for his presence, his peace.” She smiled slightly, before turning to go. “She thanks him,” she repeated just shy of the stairs and then had disappeared up them almost before Jayne could blink.

A breath he hardly knew he’d been holding escaped then, as he ran a hand over his face, fingers lingering too long on the spot where her delicate lips had been. She had no business making nice with him, giving him kind words and kisses. Sure’n he weren’t the type for bein’ nice to at all, but then he doubted he could make little River understand that. She sure did have a mind of her own, even if that same mind got scrambled now and then.

What she was saying before sure scrambled up Jayne’s brain more’n he’d like. He just assumed that those men from before was after him, now he was starting to wonder if River hadn’t been their target all along. That could mean a whole lot of things, that even Marco was mixed up in this plot to get to the little woman who would be Jayne’s charge. Made the bodyguard’s head ache just to think on how messed up this situation could really be. With Gabriel and Regan Tam all for shipping River outta here first chance they got, seemed even they could be on the evil side of this equation. Far as Jayne could tell, only people for sure on River’s side was Simon and maybe Nancy. Could even be that the Tam parents had a notion of using him for their own purposes, but Jayne weren’t havin’ none of that. Sure’n they paid his coin and gave him this here roof over his head, but it wasn’t just his Ma’s voice in his mind that’d never forgive him for letting a poor messed up little woman like River meet some awful fate, it was Jayne’s own old and worn conscience just the same.

Without really thinking on why, Jayne turned back to the front doors and double-checked they were locked up tight. He went on to walk around the whole lower level of the house, keeping an eye out for any unbolted doors or windows, paying mind to where there mightn’t be enough security men or scanner systems. If this house had to be a fortress to keep the little woman safe, so be it, though Jayne had to admit if only to himself that day by day this job was becoming less of a way to make coin, and more specifically about needing to protect River for his own peace of mind.

Upstairs, the girl that fogged up is head so easy was finding the sleep she craved would not come. It was usual for River to be haunted by dark thoughts and nightmares that kept her from peaceful slumber, but tonight was different. She did fear the men that came to take her away, feared going back to that awful place and all that it entailed. She fought against so many mixed up thoughts and memories, some her own and others she could not make fit. The numbers didn’t add up, the math failed her and led to screaming fits and fear of herself more than of anything or anyone else. She could not keep her calm with all that went on, both inside and around her, not unless Simon was here, or so she always thought.

River had a brother and she loved him as such, she did not need another to fill his shoes exactly. Though Man Called Jayne could calm her just as easily, he was no sibling to her, no non-blood substitute for her dear Simon. She saw her new protector very differently, as woman sees man, and she certainly liked what she saw. Outside he was built as men ought to be, and inside as a true hero should be formed.

Though it was easier to hide behind his callousness, the lack of manners borne from being raised on the rim and travelling through the ‘verse on his wits alone, underneath it all beat a heart of gold and a conscience instilled in him by loving Ma and strictest Pa. From a family of goodness had come River’s own white knight, whilst she had been a princess of fire turned fast to ash.

With Jayne, River actually felt she could rise again, more powerful than before. He was the helping hand and soothing words she needed when scared. He was the strength and steel to protect her from harm. He would be the one to show her a new kind of love she had only known from books and tangled, misinformed imagination up to now.

Wouldn’t be long now until they flew away, birds escaping cages and soaring into a destiny she was sure Jayne knew nothing of in his conscious mind. In his heart he had to know, as it began to beat in time to her own. A smile came to River’s lips as she closed her eyes and recalled the crystal clear moment when his eyes met her own and all was calm. Yes, in his heart he was beginning to realise the true extent of their combined destiny, and River soon slept soundly knowing just exactly how warm and beautiful her own future could yet be.


	12. Chapter 12

It’d been a week now, and every day had started and ended just the same for Jayne Cobb. First thing in the morning, before anybody was up and around, he snuck out of the Tam house and headed off down the street to the nearest public comms point. Sure, they had phones and all enough in the house, but there weren’t hardly a person he trusted there not to be listenin’ in or keeping tabs on the calls he made. One thing was for sure, weren’t nobody following Jayne around outside without his knowin’ it, so a public place was always safer.

The calls he made were all one and the same, all to St Lucy’s hospital on Ariel, tryin’ to track down Simon Tam. Weren’t no number left for him exactly, not that Jayne was given. He’d asked Nancy about it but she told him what he already knew, only his folks and River would have such a number and then Gabriel and Regan pro’ly woulda taken it from the little woman so she had no chance to call up her brother and tell him how she was sufferin’ and all.

Jayne knew he could bust into the old man’s office and find what he wanted but the less trouble he could cause until he had to, the better he figured. Rushing in all guns blazin’ was usually Jayne’s ultimate style, but then there was parts o’ him changin’ left and right since he met River Tam and got to know what her deal was.

Seemed to him he’d been right about her mind reading and all, though she never actually come out and said he was for sure. Had to mean she knew he was slipping out every morning before she was up and every night after she was tucked in her bed, goin’ down to make his calls out to St Lucy’s and her brother, Simon. She never said not a word about it and that suited he bodyguard just fine since his explainin’ to her would pro’ly only send her into one of her fits.

T’weren’t safe for her in her own home, that much Jayne was starting to get altogether too clear on. People was watching them, all of the time. Them guys in suits was only half the trouble, since it was gettin’ real clear that they was employin’ all manner of other folks to keep their beady eyes on the prize too, and the prize seemed to be River.

Jayne wanted to make some kind o’ plan here, but the more information he had, the better that was gonna work out for him. Simon had to be able to help him out, if he could ever get a hold of the Doc his ownself!

“Yeah, thanks for nothin’!” he groused as he severed the connection of his latest call, being promised unfaithfully that a message would be passed to Dr Tam.

After seven days of the same thing, he was gorram certain weren’t nobody in that hospital he could trust to give a damn message to a person. His gut told him for sure that Simon was on his sister’s side in all this, that he wouldn’t even take his parents opinion, never mind fall into line with the hwun-dahns that’d take his little sister away again.

‘Course havin’ an ally you couldn’t get a hold of was almost as bad as havin’ no ruttin’ ally at all. It meant that there was Jayne and River against potentially the whole ‘verse right about now, and that didn’t thrill the bodyguard much at all. There was a voice in the back of his head, still telling him to get outta here while the going was good, and yet every time he entertained such an idea for more’n a minute he just got mad at himself for ever thinking such.

Walking back home to the Tam house this seventh morning in a row, Jayne had his hands in his pockets and all together too much fillin’ his usually empty head. This whole job was turning out to be a helluva lot more trouble than it oughta be worth, but Cobbs weren’t quitters and he come this far. If’n he could keep on going, find a way to save the girl without killin’ every man breathin’, he’d find a way to do it... else give up and just lay waste to the whole gorram lot of them to keep her from harm.

Mighta shocked Jayne to realise that, albeit in his own head, he was thinking of doin’ that much damage for the sake of one woman, but then he weren’t exactly adverse to killin’ and maimin’ folks for any old reason that came along as a rule. On top o’ that, there weren’t exactly a whole lotta time for him to be thinkin’ on such a thing right now, as he approached the house and heard voices around back.

It was early still, barely dawn’s light breaking, and yet he expected some of the staff to be up already. Folks started buzzin’ around about this time, Mrs Patter’d be thinkin’ on breakfast and there’d be maids cleaning and security changing over shifts. Still, these voices Jayne was hearin’ weren’t any of the staff that ought to be hanging around the back of the house. First off, they spoke too good for people who worked in the house. Some were Rim folks, like Jayne himself, and others who were core-bred lower classes still didn’t talk quite so proper as he was hearing here.

Quiet and careful he moved around the side of the building, listening carefully, hand already hovering near the gun strapped to his body. A frown crossed his face when he realised weren’t just fancy fellas voices he could hear, but at least one he knew. That gorram asshole Barnes Patter was there and though it was near impossible to hear all of what he was saying, Jayne couldn’t think for a minute it was anything good. Sure’n he coulda gone bustin’ in there, laid waste to the butler and the folks he was meeting with but that could end bad and the bodyguard knew it.

There was no tellin’ who else in the house was on Patter’s side in this, how many folks he might be up against if he started somethin’ like this. Peering around the corner one more time, careful not to be seen, Jayne realised he was almost right about the men he was meeting with. They wore suits like the other two that’d come, and blue gloves that he hadn’t spotted before, but that quickly explain away River’s odd ramblin’ - two by two, hands of blue. He weren’t much lookin’ at their hands before, more so their faces, meetin’ the eyes of the evil ung jeong jia ching jien sohs that would do the awful things their type had done to the little woman.

These weren’t the same men, but part of the same set, Jayne had no doubt. Could be a simple as they were tryin’ a new point o’ entry and he was pretty sure Patter was dumb enough to let them in. Course, there was a chance that maybe he weren’t so much stupid as he was on the wrong side of this thing. Made Jayne wonder just how many folks was for helping River and how many thought she’d be better off back at that ruttin’ Academy place that had screwed up her mind.

Any wonderin’ Jayne was doin’ on what Barnes Patter’s motives were got proper confirmed when he took another glance around the corner and spotted a packet changing hands. Them hwun-dahns was payin’ Patter for somethin’ and Jayne hadn’t a doubt it had to do with them gettin’ to River.

Made the bodyguards blood boil in his veins and the urge to pull his gun and take out the whole lot of them came on awful strong. Fact was, the same reasons he didn’t do it earlier still sat there in his head, tellin’ him no. Long as he was employed here, he could keep the little woman safe. He started shootin’ up the staff and guests that the man o’ the house was all for comin’ here, then he lost his job and River would be all alone to fend for herself.

Steeling himself against emotions and instinct he weren’t right used to havin’ to fight, Jayne let his gun remain in its holster and tore himself away from the conversation at the back of the house which was all but over now anyhow. Heading in through a side door, he moved down the hall to the main stairs and up, crossing to River’s bedroom and tapping on her door.

He didn’t think much about the fact she wouldn’t be up yet, if’n he had considered the idea of her being still in bed, he might not of come bargain’ in. Still, it proved not to matter as he strode on in and found the little woman already up and fully dressed, an open case on her bed being hastily packed with clothes and all.

“What in the gorram hell are you doin’, girly?” he asked , checking no-one was around as he closed her door behind him. “They ain’t takin’ you outta here,” he assured her, thinkin’ maybe she knew about the blue-handed freaks downstairs and deciding it was easier to give up and go with them.

“Not they.” She shook her head, a shudder running through her, though she barely glanced at her bodyguard as she continued to carefully fold up dresses and such, placing them gently into her case. “He came to protect, cannot do that here anymore,” she said the things Jayne was already figurin’ on his ownself.

“That ain’t so,” he told her anyway, at least a partial lie. “I ain’t lettin’ nothin’ bad happen to ya, not here nor anywhere else.”

’Course he spoke like he was just doin’ his job and that was what he meant. Still, deep down they were both pretty sure it ran deeper than just the coin he was being paid and all. River knew it best of both of them, but it wasn’t time yet to speak of it.

“She calculates a seventy five point two four percent chance of survival if they run now,” she said instead, fixing Jayne with a stare that was not to be argued with apparently. “Stay here, as little as thirty two point one chance they both live to the end.”

Jayne almost asked what she meant by ‘the end’, almost argued that she couldn’t possibly figure out odds the way she had inside that pretty little head of hers. Problem of it was, he believed her. He knew from his own thinkin’ that there was gettin’ to be a good chance of them never surviving if they stayed here like this. There was no way of knowin’ how many folks was really on their side, but there was a helluva list of them against right now.

’Course he didn’t much like the idea of runnin’ out of here without some kinda plan. Even then, Jayne couldn’t help but let the long list of cons versus the short pros column spin through his head right now. Runnin’ from here meant runnin’ forever, least he could see it going that way. Not that Jayne had a hankerin’ to come back to the Core anytime soon, but this was a might more permanent than even he figured on. He and River split from here it was like makin’ a commitment he weren’t sure he was altogether ready for. He was gonna be tied to the little woman, not bound by a job he could give up at anytime, but responsible for her safety in the world. He ever left her, he didn’t see how she’d survive out there alone, and thoughts of the possible consequences made bile rise in his throat.

Shaking his head free of such obscenities, Jayne glanced at River and caught her staring, her hands had stilled inside her suitcase, her eyes locked onto his face. He wondered if she knew what he was thinking, if her concentration was borne of her trying to see inside his mind, or if she was already readin’ what was there and deciding what she thought of it her ownself.

Jayne didn’t want River knowing the destiny that’d meet her if she went out in the ‘verse alone. Didn’t want her thinkin’ on the horrors the world held that a girl like her should never have to see nor never paid no mind to. He wanted to protect her, it was an overwhelming feeling somewhere deep inside of him that Jayne weren’t accustomed to nor wanted even a little bit. Still, it was there, and it seemed there weren’t no way to shift it.

“Er, you leave your packin’ and all,” he advised her, though he barely spared her a glance as he headed for the door.

“Must go,” said River plainly. “Must go before it’s too late... Jayne!” she said with more desperation as she rounded the bed and came to grab at his arm.

The bodyguard stopped and shook her off before she had a chance to get a grip on him. Still he didn’t look back at her, even when he spoke.

“Ain’t runnin’ from here without a gorram plan!” he growled at her, more mad at himself and the situation he’d landed himself in than at her, but it had to come out somewhere. “Gotta think on this some,” he told her firmly, continuing on and heading out, slamming the door behind him.

River flinched at the sound, in spite of the fact she expected it to come. Jayne was stalling and she knew it. Though she saw the sense in having a plan before they left here, there was little he could come up with in a day that was worth the trouble of time wasted. River had her calculations done, all the math figured out. This house was not safe anymore, dangerous enough when makers were present, but Simon was the safety net. Now all were gone, all that mattered, leaving the princess of the tower to be cared for by her knight in mercenary’s clothes. Now the walls were closing in on the both of them, stones tumbling down onto their heads at an alarming rate. Running was the only option left, running from frying pan to fire, perhaps, but there was no other choice that River could find.

“Trust,” she whispered in the silence of the empty room. “Trust and patience,” she told the space around her or possibly herself as she backed up towards the window, turning at the last and peering down below.

Jayne wandered out of the side door, and River watched as he turned his eyes skyward, running a hand over his hair. He was troubled, perhaps even a little scared, though such words would never be spoken by the man himself. Such a contradiction between them since the little woman who would be in danger, who perhaps ought to be afraid as many damsels before had been, was as far as far could be from fear. In the end, her bodyguard would make the right decision, and they would accept their fate along the path that would lead them home together. This she saw brighter and clearer than any other thought in her mind.

Despite the dangers she knew would yet befall them, River concentrated on the light at the end of a long dark tunnel inside her mind, and she smiled.


	13. Chapter 13

Different people had different ways of making the big choices in their lives. For Jayne Cobb, things was always pretty darn simple. Mostly he reacted to whatever was goin’ on, shoot first and never ask no gorram questions. He acted on instinct and that served him well, left his home planet after barely a days thinkin’ and never looked back. Got jobs he knew he could pull with his eyes closed and never worried too much on whatever carnage he had a mind to leave behind. Never did bother Jayne Cobb ‘cause all he had to worry on was keepin’ himself in one whole piece that weren’t filled full o’ holes.

Things was awful different now, gettin’ more and more complicated every day he was here in this ruttin’ house. Them Tams done pulled the wool over his eyes, that was for damn sure, and none so much as River. The little woman just seemed to him to be a little off her axle, morbid and creepyfyin’ when such a fit took her but no real harm to no-one so long as he kept her calm and all. Now she was causing him nothing but trouble, though he doubted she knew it much.

There was folks after the little woman, and not just them that came obvious like the dandy gents that had come visiting and scared the girl half to death. Nah, her parents was in on this too, and far as Jayne could tell that Barnes Patter was havin’ a hand in the dealings. Weren’t no telling how many more was connected in this whole web o’ lies and deception, Jayne thought. Couldn’t be a coincidence that the guy he’d been tracking for Marco came turnin’ the tables on him yet, keeping eyes on him as he walked around town with little River.

Jayne figured on him being the only target of folks like that, but River weren’t dumb, far from it. She saw things in her head others couldn’t ever know the way she did. Weren’t that she scared the bodyguard nor nothing, though he did half wonder if she weren’t some kind of witch with the tricks she could pull. Still, seemed to him she didn’t much want any powers or whatever it was she had, and hell, if she was a gorram witch she’da magicked her pretty little pigu out of this mess by now.

Too many folks was coming for her. Countin’ in his head, Jayne was comin’ up with a list as long as his own leg of people he couldn’t trust in this place, and hardly but a handful he was pretty sure he could. Nancy seemed like she cared enough for her ‘Miss River’ and the little woman believed in that. If she had intenions of having her so-called friend sent away again, one of ‘em ought to have known it by now, either the girl that seemed to read minds or her bodyguard that had spent his life reading folks intentions so as to take advantage of them any way he could or protect himself from them as needs be.

Jayne and River plus Nancy against however many staff was plottin’, the Tam parents, and Buddha knew how many folks outside of this house, Jayne didn’t much like them odds, not at all. Sure’n the Doc was supposed to be all on his mei mei’s side in this, but he weren’t here and apparently couldn’t even answer a gorram call! It’d been over a week now without so much as a letter nor a call back. Made Jayne start to wonder if’n he weren’t on his parents side in all this, if they hadn’t twisted him against what was in River’s best interest.

Even now it baffled the bodyguard why he was more bothered about her welfare than his own, but Jayne tried not to think on that so much. The girl was right, running seemed more and more like a decent plan as he thought on it. If her folks was to decide to come home all of a sudden and say she was goin’ back to the gorram school that had screwed up her head in the first place, weren’t a thing Jayne was gonna be able to do about that, ‘cept for killin’ River’s Ma and Pa, and he couldn’t do that to her, no matter how evil they was. She’d hate him for that and somehow that seemed like the worst thing in the world to Jayne Cobb right now.

It was late in the evening, dark outside and most everyone in the house asleep. Jayne hadn’t hardly noticed the passin’ of time today. River refused to come out of her room all day long, not wanting the walk out to the market when he offered her, nor anything Nancy tried to tempt her out with. Seemed to the bodyguard it might just be for the best that she stay out of his way while he was thinking on things, since thinking weren’t exactly a Cobbs strong point and was bound to take all his energy. Nobody wanted to bother him and that suited him fine as he stayed away in his own room, weighing up pros and cons that were coming out all one-sided the more he went over them.

T’would seem to most that now was the best time for runnin’, under cover of darkness and all, but Jayne knew better. Movement in the house after lights out would cause a stir, attract too much attention. He couldn’t trust River not to have one of her fits and make a fuss neither. She weren’t so very bad of late, kept quiet and calm for the most part and hadn’t needed them drugs Nancy shot into her for the better part of two weeks together. Still, it occurred to Jayne they didn’t ought to leave here without that medication, and a whole heap of other things that’d need packing. Once they got clear of the house and out into the ‘verse, both Jayne and River would be living by their wits and on whatever they could beg, steal, or borrow. He knew how to do that, been doing it years enough, but she weren’t like him. Little woman was closer to a princess than anything else, borne to privilege and all. Livin’ hand to mouth and constantly movin’ from place to place might do her more harm than good, but stayin’ here she   
was fixin’ to get herself killed, or worse.

‘Take care of my mei mei’ - the words the Doc had said as he left here echoed in Jayne’s mind louder than anything right now, alongside his own answer.

‘You got my word, doc,’ he had promised, true as he ever he said anythin’, though he hadn’t an idea then what he was swearing to exactly.

Didn’t matter, a man’s word was just that and something to be kept. Protecting River meant getting her outta this place, doing what needed to be done. She seemed to be all for goin’, though Jayne still highly doubted the reality of the situation was hitting her altogether yet. Hell, if it wouldn’t a week from now when they’d been living like paupers that long. Still, he couldn’t take the risk of staying here. Things could surely end a whole lot worse if that Barnes Patter decided to let them wrong ‘uns in one night to take River away. Chances were he could get access to the meds Nancy had to use on the little woman, keep her quiet while they dragged her out, save on kicking and screaming. This far away, there was a chance that her bodyguard wouldn’t even know about it.

Getting up off his bed, Jayne opened up the door to his room and checked the hallway left and right. Weren’t nobody around, as he expected, no sign of that hwun-dahn Patter nor nobody at all. Creeping out and down to the back stairs, Jayne headed up towards River’s bedroom just as he had this morning. Somehow he figured on her not being asleep yet, probably because her head was as busy as his own, maybe because she would be reading the thoughts clean out of his head anyhow, there was no sure fire way to tell with her!

Mindful of causing her to lose it, he tapped on the door afore he opened it and must’ve looked more startled than her when he perered in and saw her sat upright in her bed, the covers clutched to her chest. She weren’t scared none, not if the smile on her lips was anything to go by. He might not have seen her at all, ‘cept she had the lamp by her bed switched on. Hell, he half wondered if she’d known this whole time he was coming up here.

So distracted was Jayne by the whole mind reading thing that still bothered him some, he hardly noticed the little woman’s state of undress til he turned around from tryin’ his best to close the bedroom door in silence.

“She knew he would come to her,” said River behind him, too close to still be in bed, and sure enough there she was on her tip toes when he turned around.

“Get back in your bed, girly, or you’ll catch your death,” he told her, both of them knowing it was a dumbass thing to say.

Weren’t even cold outside, truth be told, and they had all the air-con they could ever need to keep things on an even keel. Little woman stood more chance of spontaneous combustion than she did of freezing to death, and woman she was sure proving herself to be as she stood before Jayne now, all flimsy nightwear and smiles... again!

“He has plans for her now,” she said, instead of moving away as she’d been all but ordered.

Hell, if’n there weren’t a whole bunch of ways to take them words, and every single dirty and unbefitting way was running through Jayne’s head in that moment. Girl half his age and as whimsical in the brain pan as River could be didn’t have no business making him feel this way, no business at all. Most especially when he was here to protect her and take care and all. Right now it was perhaps the furthest thing from his filthy and wandering mind.

The wide-eyed expression that spread across River’s face then suggested maybe she knew just exactly where his mind tended, though the smile that went along with almost suggested she didn’t care at all. That was all the more worryin’ to Jayne Cobb than anything else had been in weeks.

“We gonna get outta here tomorrow, you best get your sleepin’ done while you can,” he advised her, his fingers itching to reach out to her shoulders, turn her around, and shove her to her bed.

He resisted said urge, purely because he knew if he touched her now he might not know where to stop. Weren’t no time nor place for such thinking, and no time nor place ever would be, he told himself. Yep, that was one internal battle that Jayne reckoned on losing someday, but now he really had to try the best he could.

“He must sleep too,” advised River as she fair floated back to her bed and pulled the covers down. “Room for two?” she offered, as Jayne turned his back on her.

“Couch works for me,” he muttered, clearing his throat that had gone six kinds of dry since he come on up here. “I’d tell ya the plan, but I know you. You probably already came up with the same your ownself, or stole it outta my head on the way up the stairs,” he said, glancing at her then with a smirk he couldn’t help, glad beyond words that she was back in bed now and covered up.

“Jayne-man is smarter than credited for.” She smiled in reply, giving no further explanation.

River watched as her bodyguard tried to make himself comfortable on a couch amply wide enough for his form, but by no means suited to his height. He would not be comfortable in any physical sense, but it eased his mind to be closer to her, to keep her safe.

It eased River’s mind just the same to have him close by, though the most concerning feelings stirred within her at the idea of having such a man at such a short distance. She did not know much of the physicalities of relationships, only the science behind it. She longed to know what else there was to man and woman becoming close, in so many ways. Now was not the time, this she could tell all too easily from her Jayne-man’s manner. He cared for he enough that her safety came before desire. She would happily accept both and damn the consequences, but if biding her time was what was needed she could forbear. Tomorrow they would be free of this haunted house that rattled her nerves each day, and into the wild blue yonder where happiness and danger both were entwined and wrapped in blood and stars.

Jayne had no such thoughts playing on his mind. He found a focus like no other when his eyes were closed and back turned to the pretty little thing that would charm him. As unlikely an activity as it was for a man such as himself, Jayne was saying a silent prayer to whoever was out there and might just listen to his pleas. Weren’t a moment he ever thought he deserved help from no powers of almighty and such, but River here, she was innocent as anything. All that was wrong with her had been done to her, and she deserved some goodness and kindness from any place it might come.

Seemed certain to Jayne that hell was gonna rain down on the two of them once anyone realised they was gone, but by morning he’d be ready, just like he said. Nothing bad was ever gonna happen to River Tam again, he was gonna see to that, if’n it was the last thing he ever did.


	14. Chapter 14

Jayne woke up at first light, a habit he had gotten into more years ago than his mind could recall at such an hour. Working with his Pa had him up at the crack of dawn just as near to every day as ever there was. He always figured when he worked his own way, for his ownself, he could sleep in all day long. Strange how even when there was nothing to get up for, Jayne couldn’t help but stir so gorram early.

Of course, today he had more than enough reason to be waking and getting out of bed early. Might’ve suited Jayne better if he had been sleeping on a bed since this couch he’d chosen to spend the night on was too short for the height of him. He had thought it was wider than it felt now though, quite large enough for the size of him in that regard, but the slightest shift of his muscles soon proved to him why he suddenly didn’t have enough room to hardly breathe.

“Gorram, little woman,” he muttered as he realised too much movement was like as not to tip River clean off the furniture!

Heaven only knew when she’d crept over here from her bed and curled up beside him like a cat. Heaven was right too, ‘cause she slept like an angel with her head on Jayne’s chest and an arm slung across his body. When he had come to be hugging her just the same, an arm wrapped around her shoulders, was anyone’s guess. He ought to wake her up, Jayne knew that, tell the ruttin’ feng-le little woman that she weren’t to mess around like that, got no business getting snuggly with him ‘cause he weren’t no teddy bear nor some such.

Problem of it was, it felt kinda nice holding onto her this way. To say so out loud, Jayne knew he’d sound like some nancy boy idiot, but laying here with River held close was the weirdest mixture of comfortable and not. She was soft and sweet as she looked, he realised, pretty as a picture, like one of them dolls his little sisters always wanted whenever they passed the toy store window. Probably as fragile as anything made o’ china too in some ways, though Jayne knew she had a strength in her. When she ranted an’ raved in one of her fits, she could scratch and bruise him, without ever meaning it. Channelled right, she could be one hell of a fighter, ‘specially with them dancin’ skills he’d seen.

Thinking so much pretty and nice about River, ‘specially when she was right here curled up beside him, brought a goofy grin to the face of the bodyguard, that never did ought to be there. He was serious again in a second as reality caught up to a daydream and shattered it to pieces.

Today was the day they got outta this place, when Jayne took his charge out of this house, never again to come back. There was equal parts of love and hate in Jayne for the very idea of making River now live a life too much like his own had always been. Getting her away from here, pulling the wool over the eyes of her evil gorram folks and the staff that couldn’t be trusted, plus them Alliance fellas that’d come for her, that was all to the good. On the flip side, poor little woman was gonna have to learn to live a whole new life, far away from the fine fripperies she was used to here, that showed in every aspect of the room they lay in now.

No more gilt-framed mirrors and fancy frocks. Far away from servants and technology both that made life both simple and fancy in so many ways. Life out in the real world was gonna be a bigger shock than she was ready for, Jayne was certain, no matter how much River seemed to know. What she thought she understood, looking outta the window of her ivory tower, it was a whole other thing to go livin’ in the ‘verse, with all its ups and downs, more bad than good. Still, anything was safer than here where every person knew her and most wanted to take her away to a place that’d only do her harm.

In amongst too much deep thought for Jayne, River began to stir, big brown eyes opening and looking up to meet his own gaze.

“What the gorram hell you think you’re doin’, you crazy little woman?” he said, nudging her body away from his own.

Though he made it seem like all he wanted was for her to get away, his scowl and angry tone were betrayed by his actions. He did not release her from his arms grip until he was sure she had her blanace, not wanting her to fall on the floor and hurt herself. River bit back the smile that would give away the fact she knew. Jayne would be embarrassed to think she had any idea he cared at all. Men were not supposed to care, at least not men like him. The big bad wolf was supposed to want to eat Little Red Riding Hood, not escort her safely to Grandma’s house, hoping always for a kiss. Fairytales never did get it quite right, she mused, as she scrambled to her feet and watched Jayne try to shake off what had passed between them these past few moments.

“She slept well,” said River, pushing her hair over her shoulder.

Jayne chose to not look at her as he got up and glanced around every other possible spot in the room. He wasn’t willing to admit he’d slept pretty well his ownself or that she had anything to do with anything at all he was feeling. As far as he was concerned he weren’t supposed to have any feelings, and wished she’d think the same. Unfortunately, when your partner in a runaway could read minds whenever she wanted, it was kinda hard to keep a secret or fake a lie too long.

“You don’t sleep alongside folks unless they invite ya, dong ma?” he told her crossly, a finger pointed at her as if a father scolding a child.

River did not appreciate it and stuck out her chin with defiance.

“She will be eighteen before he can calculate it,” she huffed. “Not a baby and will not be spoken to as one,” she told him hffily, turning her back to him as she stormed across the carpet to her bed.

Stomping away was not quite so effective barefoot, but then Jayne was used to the fact she almost never had anything on her feet. Hell, he was fast getting used to a lot o’ things about her, ‘cept her uncanny ability to suddenly do stuff he weren’t ready for at a moments notice. For instance, the very next second when she stripped her night gown off over her head without a seconds pause.

Jayne ought to have turned his back, sure’n he meant to. Part of it was that in built voice of his Ma reminding him how gentlemen ought to behave. That would normally be something he could over-ride, but knowing how young and innocent and fragile River was, well, the two things together ought to have been enough. It wasn’t. As much as he tried to put her away in his mind as a child and nothing more, there was a reason Jayne always called her ‘little woman’. She might be half his age, but she’d grown up fast. Innocence of a child she may have, but curves of a woman and mind of an adult she surely did possess.

“She packed essentials,” she said, her voice cutting through the fog in Jayne’s mind and bringing him back down to reality with a sickening thump.

They had to get out of here, out of danger, out of harm’s way. No time for thrill and fantasy, not when their lives could be in danger, and certainly would be before the day was done.

“Er, you got cash?” he asked, thinking fast. “Gotta have enough coin to go as far as we can get.”

“She has multiple accounts,” confirmed River as she pulled open her bag and checked she had everything, even though she was already certain of it.

“Accounts ain’t no good, girly,” he enforced the childish endearment upon her.

Jayne wasn’t sure if he was doing it to put her down some, or to force the image of her as a child into his deceitful mind. Whatever it was, it didn’t really work.

“Gotta be cash, untraceable,” he reminded the genius of what he thought she ought already to know.

Seemed he underestimated her as she pulled papers from her bag to show him what she’d really meant. Seemed those many accounts she had were getting low on funds. One withdrawal after another made by River herself, a little at a time so as no-one would notice. The dates suggested she’d been plannin’ this trip outta here long afore Jayne ever came around. He wanted to ask how the hell she ever thought she was gonna survive alone in the ‘verse but fast realised it didn’t matter none now. She had him to watch her back, and watch it he would.

“Shiny,” he admitted, handing the paperwork back to her. “Now, you go get your breakfast had, don’t say nothin’ to none of the other folks here ‘bout us headin’ out, not even Nancy,” he warned her. “Can’t keep you safe less you do as I tell ya, you got that, girly?”

“She understands,” River nodded once. “She puts herself in his hands.” She smiled then as she brushed past him and headed out the door.

‘Yeah’, thought Jayne painfully, ‘’cause she just couldn’ta said that any other way, could she?’

* * *

It was a strange feeling for River as she stood at the docks, looking back the way she and Jayne had travelled. Not two hours ago she had been stood before him in her own room, talking of their escape that she so longed for. Now it was happening, and she trusted in Jayne and fate between them to keep her safe from here on out. Still, it was an odd and unsettling feeling to leave the only home she had ever known.

It was not the people she was sorry to leave, though Nancy had been a faithful friend and one to be missed, and a building held no sentiment for a young woman of scientific mind with a need to run free. No, River could not complete the calculations that would give her a suitable conclusion as to why she was sorry to leave Osiris. There was no logic, no rhyme, no reason, to this strange feeling akin to pain and sorrow.

“You gonna hurl?” asked Jayne as he turned to look at her, hefting both her bag and his a little higher on his shoulder. “Ya ain’t lookin’ so good there,” he noted as he studied her sad face.

“She is only perturbed by that which she cannot fathom.” She sighed heavily, half-knowing her words would be lost on him, but forced to go with the only flow of thoughts she could find clearly right now. “He has freed her from the guilded cage, and she is grateful, but... the bars were comfort as much as prison.”

Jayne couldn’t make any sense o’ that, not when he was trying to concentrate on the task at hand of getting them safe passage out of here as much as he was anything else. Hard enough to unravel what the little woman rattled on about half of the time anyhow, now weren’t the time for riddles as he soon told her.

“Ain’t got no time for your fancy talk,” he told her, saving her further upset by tryin’ his darndest not to snap as much as he’d like to. “You learn to talk plain and fast or this whole trip ain’t gonna work out so well, dong ma?”

“She apologises,” said River, tearing her eyes from the skyline to meet his. “To run will be better, but home is all she ever knew.” She shrugged. “Not counting the darkness of elsewhere.” She shuddered then, ducking her face behind her hair, as if ashamed to have mentioned the Academy at all.

Jayne weren’t right sure what to say to her, though he had now grasped her meaning. She was afraid, scared of leaving all she knew even if what she knew weren’t so nice no more. He knew how she felt ‘cause he’d been there. Big and brutish as he was, it was still a wrench for a young Jayne to leave his Ma and Pa and sisters behind that day he stepped offa land and onto his first voyage through the ‘verse. He hadn’t figured on River feelin’ the same when she’d been in such a mind to run, and yet he’d been just as conflicted about leaving home, even if his reasons for wanting out were vastly different then.

“Hey,” he said, getting River’s attention back. “Ain’t got nothin’ to fear, little woman. Gave m’word you was gonna be protected, and I stick to my word... well, mostly. I will this time, that’s all you need to know.”

He ended with a little less confidence than he started, but at least River was smiling after that.

Jayne turned from her grin to the rows of vessels docked all around them. Had to choose careful, didn’t want no suspicions raised and they was a pair as likely as not to do that anyhow. He reckoned if anybody recognised River, he’d just say he was taking her to meet her folks on their vacation, most like nobody’d check nor bat an eye. Course it’d come easier if nobody paid no mind to the little woman at all. ‘S long as she didn’t have one of her fits or some such, they oughta be okay.

Guilt weren’t something Jayne Cobb much felt, and yet the drugs in the bottom of his bag were taunting him. He didn’t care for the fact he had to thieve ‘em outta Nancy’s room when she had her back turned, nor that he even brought ‘em along on this trip at all. Seemed to him he weren’t ever gonna be in a position where he wanted to stick needles in the one he swore to protect always, but insurance was necessary, he told himself, and hoped to God he never needed it.


	15. Chapter 15

Jayne knew just as soon as the folks at the Tam house realised his and River’s day trip out was going on far too long, there’d be search parties out looking for them. He reckoned he had until dinner time that night, maybe a little longer to allow for them running late on their special day out they told everyone River had planned. He calculated that they were free and clear until sundown that first day they left. After that, a search would start planet-side, which would include questioning anyone at the docks before the sun rose on a new day.

The plan was simple, to get as far as they could in the least obvious direction before the search got off planet. There was no checking into boarding houses nor meals in any place they might be spotted. River and Jayne kept moving, constantly, at his insistence, and she complied because she trusted he knew what was best. From ship to shuttle to ship again, they were miles from Osiris now on their third day of travel. The little woman had gotten tired much faster than Jayne, in spite of the fact she was younger and ought to have more energy. The stress of the situation was wearing on her, no doubt, and she had dropped off to sleep a couple of times when they was travelling. It didn’t bother Jayne much, at least when she was sleeping she wasn’t talking a mile a minute, nor wandering off where he had to worry. Only trouble of it was, he feared her getting one of her nightmares out here. If she caused a scene and drew attention to them, well, that was the last gorram thing they needed when they was about to be branded as fugees. Thankfully, she had stayed quiet and still as she slept, something Jayne was more’n grateful for.

Tonight was their first in a proper bed for some time. ‘Course, he had plans for the two of them to be not in the very same bed at all, though in the same room for safety’s sake. It wasn’t a fancy hotel they walked into tonight, nothing like the places River ought to be used to. Fact was it was cheap and low key, chances were good no-one would wonder about who they were or why they were here. This kinda place didn’t ask questions, just gave you a room for the money you paid and left well alone, regardless the consequences.

Unfortunately for Jayne, River didn’t seem all that sold on keeping quiet and not drawing attention to herself. Sure’n she’d done well enough at it up to now, but tonight was all different. She got ahead of him, some kinda lightening move he barely followed with his eyes, nevermind his feet. He lugged her bag as well as his through the door, watching her dart up to the desk and ring the bell needlessly since the man was already sat their waitin’ to be helpful.

“What can I do for you, ma’am?” asked the elderly gentleman with a toothless grin.

“They require a room please,” she asked politely, practically curtsying at him as Jayne appeared behind her. “Something simple but suitable for bride and groom,” she grinned.

“For what, now?” the bodyguard asked with astonishment though a glare from River had him silent a second later - it was just the eeriest thing to see her look anything like mad that way.

“Oh, newlyweds!” the old man declared happily, immediately yelling for what was presumably his wife to come see.

The little old lady more hobbled than ran as she appeared from the back room, wiping her hands on a dish towel and grinning ear to ear at the news there were newly married folks in their midst.

All Jayne could do was stare, knowing if he told them now that River had lied there was going to be a lot of explaining to do. Saying the girl was moon-brained might work, but would only draw more attention than they already was . Seemed to Jayne it might just be easier to go along with this whole thing and get it over with, hope they could get away to a room afore anybody else showed up and started making a fuss and all.

“’S been a gorram long day for me and the woman here,” he told the jabbering couple behind the counter. “Would appreciate if we could get to a room. Fast’d be better’n slow,” he told them.

River giggled at his words, something he couldn’t understand at first til she turned into him, her hand on his chest.

“Husband is impatient for his wedding night,” she teased him, smilin’ in such a way as to look like she meant everything her eyes seemed to promise.

Jayne shook it off the moment the idea landed, concentrating on getting the folks behind the counter to hurry their asses into gear and find them a room. Last thing they needed was other people noticing them too much, and given the fuss that was gettin’ kicked up, it was only a matter of time.

“Here you go, ma’am,” said the elderly gent with a grin and a wink, as he handed River a low-tech keycard.

“What names should we put your down under, sir?” asked his wife as she waited, gazing expectantly at Jayne, her fingers poised over her keyboard.

“Er, Mr and Mrs Smith,” he said awkwardly, hefting the bag higher on his shoulder and shooting River a warning look when she smirked.

She started calling him a liar and making a big deal, he might just tell folks the whole truth and leave her to fend for her ownself. He thought it but never said it, and even the thinking wasn’t serious. This she must’ve known as she poked her tongue out at him when nobody was watching.

“You two are really married folks, ain’t ya?” the little old man checked, full of scepticism, which was understandable given the names Jayne just stated.

“Yes, indeed,” River cut in before her bodyguard could, “but they must be guarded in behaviour, careful of those that would follow and capture,” she explained, unaware that Jayne’s mouth had dropped open in shock at the sound of the secrets spilling from her lips. “She was not supposed to marry her man, was promised to another,” she went on, shifting from semi-truths to full on lies with relative ease, Jayne noted, “but what is age or riches or anything, when love is involved?” she asked with a forlorn kind of a sigh as she leant her head on Jayne’s chest.

He coulda done without her being so sweet and friendly when he was focused on being mad at her. She never made anything easy, this one, and he doubted she ever would. Still, the story she spun got them out of further talks with the owners of this here place. In fact, she got them a gorram discount on the best room in the place. Seemed the troublesome little woman had her uses after all.

Soon the pair of supposed newlyweds were headed up to said room alone.

Just as soon as they were in and the door closed behind them, Jayne dropped their luggage down on the thin carpet and snapped at his ‘wife’.

“What the gorram hell was all o’ that about?” he asked her crossly, even as she danced about the space, looking it over. “Coulda made a better excuse than ruttin’ newlyweds. Folks always make a fuss about stuff like that,” he told her, though River paid him no mind. “You hearin’ me, ya feng-le little woman!” he said loudly and more forcefully, going so far as to make a grab at her arm and turn around when she came anywhere near. “You got an idea what ‘undercover’ means?” he checked.

She nodded sweet enough before she ever answered.

“She understands,” she confirmed, not at all phased by his anger apparently. “Newlyweds enjoy activities under covers,” she said with a smile unbefittin’ such a face as hers, young and innocent as she ought to be and yet was proving otherwise every day in such ways as this.

Jayne was used to being lost for words, didn’t use ‘em much anyhow. His yearning need to throw River down and give her what she seemed to want was a bigger problem; yes, sir, a whole mess of a problem he wished he wasn’t having to deal with right now. Convincing himself she was just a child really weren’t working no more, and the folks runnin’ this motel hadn’t helped. They seemed not even a little bit bothered by the obvious age gap between them two ‘newlyweds’, making Jayne wonder why he even thought it would be odd.

Places he’d been, back water moons and such on the rim, girls got married off as young as fourteen, and were squeezin’ out young uns within the year. Sure’n some of their husbands was as old as their Daddies and nobody paid no mind to it. Maybe Jayne just didn’t want to admit he could care for anyone but his ownself and was using every possible excuse to get out of it. Whatever those excuses were, they wasn’t working so well as time wore on.

“You cut out all that newlywed crap, ‘less we’re in front o’ other folks, y’hear?” he told her, though perhaps not quite as sternly as he meant to.

There was a dangerous moment when he met her eyes and half thought she was going to defy him in some fashion that’d lead to absolutely no good. Worst of it was, a part of him almost wished she would, however wrong it seemed.

“She will comply, if he wishes,” confirmed River with a dainty nod, as Jayne let out a breath he was hardly aware he’d been holding the entire time.

Of course the problem still remained that they had one double bed between the two of them, as opposed to the two singles he would’ve preferred. There was no way Jayne could be expected to sleep beside a young woman who looked like her, and no doubt planned on gettin’ nekkid!

“They must share the bed,” she insisted, as if she heard his thoughts and she probably had too. “To save his blushes, he might sleep atop the covers whilst she sleeps under?” she suggested cleverly.

Hell, if her being smart wasn’t gettin’ to Jayne as much as her being hua li tonight. Maybe he was over-tired, been travelling too long and too far with only River for company. ‘Course that weren’t gonna change any time soon so it seemed he was gonna have to get used to it. As plans went, hers was a pretty solid one, though just knowing she was practically naked and inches away wasn’t gonna be helpful to the parts of his anatomy that already ached as it was, whether a couple of blankets parted them or not.

He muttered a reply that sounded like agreement to River, disappearing off to the bathroom while she got changed. She didn’t say a word about how long he was gone, figuring he was just ensuring she was into bed and away from his eyes before he returned. She had no idea he’d been picturing her on purpose just a little ways down the hall, for reasons girls like her ought never to understand, or so Jayne reckoned.

“Goodnight, protector,” she said softly as he climbed onto the bed beside her, making sure there was as much distance between them as possible on the too slim bed.

“’Night,” he muttered his reply as he turned his back to her and feigned sleep.

As if either of them were likely to find peaceful slumber, given all that was happening around them, as well as inside their heads...

* * *

Dr Simon Tam was officially exhausted. It probably wasn’t the brightest of moves for him to carry on working in such a state, but a sickness bug had taken out half the regular staff and so it was all hands to the pumps at St Lucys. Every person, fully qualified or not, was required to be present if humanly possible, and so Simon had worked these past twelve hours straight and was really feeling it.

A short reprieve gave him a moment to at least get an energy drink, a much needed burst of caffeine and glucose, to help him keep going just a while longer. He passed by the front desk, drink in hand, when suddenly the girl behind it called to him. He didn’t recognise her, but then it was likely she’d been drafted in from elsewhere, perhaps even another hospital, thanks to all the sickness leave being taken of late.

“Is there another emergency?” he checked.

“Oh, no, Doctor, not that I know of,” the young girl assured him with a smile. “I just have a message for you,” she admitted as she handed over a recording device.

“Thank you,” Simon said absently as he stepped away to one side and pressed play.

‘Simon, it’s Jayne,’ said the gruff voice of his sister’s bodyguard. ‘This is mebbe the hundredth gorram message I left here and I ain’t leavin’ no more. You call me back soon or so help me I am done with you and ya whole ruttin’ family!’

Simon was frowning hard at the realisation Jayne had left so very many messages. He doubted it were really the hundred he spoke of, but it had to be many for him to say as such. Simon was concerned about any reasons Jayne might have to do such a thing, and doubly worried that he clearly hadn’t received the previous messages. Something was obviously very wrong and panic rose in his chest extra fast when he heard the electronic female voice tell him this particular message had been left three, make that four days ago, since it was now well past midnight once again.

“Paging Dr Tam; Dr Tam to triage.”

The voice over the loudspeaker system, coupled with the buzzing of a device at his hip, told Simon he hadn’t time to think about this right now. River could not be in so very much trouble, he told himself. It was likely Jayne was just thinking of leaving his job. Whilst that was not the best news ever, it could be a lot worse, Simon considered. Losing his own job would be a worse tragedy, he rationalised, before rushing off to where he was needed within the hospital.

* * *

His hands on her skin felt electric, hot enough to burn and yet she could not, would not flinch away. River revelled in the feelings that stirred within her, the like of which she had never known before. She could hardly breathe and knew if she could she would make noise loud enough to wake the slumbering man beside her. All this she was feeling from reading his imagination, almost as if it were really happening, as she wished it would, though the idea of it also scared her.

River was used to losing control in bad ways, having her fits, feeling as if she were losing her mind. Such occasions had grown infrequent since Jayne Cobb came into her life, but she remembered them with frightening accuracy that made her shudder in a much less pleasant way than a few moments before. Her own thought processes took over now from the those she had read in Jayne’s mind, which was probably for the best in some ways.

Sleeping was unlikely as things stood now, River’s head was far too busy to switch off. Jayne had been awake for almost three days straight and so she understood his own tired state. He had allowed her rest as they travelled, watching over her no matter what, she knew that. He did not object to being as close to her as he was now, though anything more intimate seemed reserved for his dreams so far.

River longed to know how good it could really feel to be with him that way, to be a woman in the truest sense. One day soon, she would have her education under Jayne’s hands, would feel the passion she knew stirred within him. Until then, she would try to find sleep and dream of what was to come, until her own yearnings could be sated.


	16. Chapter 16

It was over a week now since Jayne Cobb took River Tam away from the life she was accustomed to and out into the black. A string of shuttle trips and short haul flights on ships had been punctuated by low-rate boarding houses and dodgy dives across various small planets and moons, as they travelled in the most random and unlikely pattern they could manage. Jayne was good at undercover, River was less so, but they did all they could to get her far away from her home planet of Osiris without ever being suspected of being anything but a pair of ordinary travellers.

Tonight, the place they found to sleep was simply a bed for the night, no food or drink laid on, no help from the staff since the only employee was the big brute of guy on the door taking the coin and keeping folks from starting trouble. Jayne knew he had to venture out for supplies, not just food but some ammo for his guns would come in handy. There hadn’t been much in the way of trouble so far, but then they hadn’t hit anywhere close to the rim until today. Out here, he was more’n likely gonna need to be armed and willing to shoot first, ask questions later. How River would take that behaviour he hadn’t an idea, but right now he couldn’t worry too much on it anyhow.

Leaving the little woman at the dive where they would sleep tonight weren’t gonna happen. Jayne didn’t trust so much as the muscle at the door, never mind the other folks stayin’ in such a place. She had to go with him to buy what he needed and it had to be now else starve til morning. Jayne wouldn’t be altogether happy ‘bout doin’ that his ownself, he sure as hell weren’t gonna make River suffer that way.

‘Course taking her out in the streets at a late hour in such a place weren’t too smart either; meant that when she got a hold of his hand, Jayne couldn’t exactly argue with her. It was the safest way to keep her close and protected as they passed by one too many less than wholesome folks that wouldn’t think twice ‘bout takin’ advantage of such a good lookin’ female form as hers was.

“How far’s a fella gotta walk to get some supplies round this place?” Jayne muttered to himself as he rounded the next corner and walked almost directly into the front doors of a store.

“And he says she is the psychic.” River chuckled at the turn of events, but was silent a moment later as her bodyguard turned and glared at her.

“You keep that kinda talk quiet round here, you hear me, girly?” he warned her in a low voice that made her shudder in the best and worst ways all at once. “Don’t want nobody knowin’ who you is or what you is, dong ma?”

“She understands.” She nodded easily, her grip tightening on his much larger hand as they moved further into the store.

It was the same as every other place on this God forsaken go-se little moon. They asked no questions nor made no pleasantries with folks, just sold ‘em what they came for at the best price they could get. River kept her mouth shut, and Jayne thanked Buddha for it, as he hid away protein bars and energy drinks in his inside pockets, alongside a couple of pack of bullets for his favourite concealable gun that was always strapped to his hip, covered by his jacket. The only person to know it was there was River and he liked it that way. Saved on havin’ to worry ‘bout somebody taking it from him when he let his guard down more’n a second, not that it happened often but he didn’t have complete trust in himself since River kept turnin’ his head and all. She could be a distraction, that was for gorram sure, and he could do without it, but there didn’t seem to be any way to change such a thing.

“C’mon, bao bei,” he said, putting a hand to the small of River’s back and guiding her out of the store just the minute his purchases was paid for and hid away on his person.

There was a guy on the corner givin’ her the eye, though it took her a while to notice her ownself. Jayne figured it was only his use of such a pleasantry for her that tipped her off. It was still weird to him that she could be so aware that she literally knew what he was thinkin’ sometimes, and yet other times hadn’t a clue what was right there in front of her face.

“C’mon, girly, quit dawdlin’ behind,” he warned her when she fell back, her hand still in his and pulling on his arm.

When he turned to see what her problem was, he didn’t much care for the haunted look that had settled in her eyes, made all the more eerie by the dim light out here. Shadows played across her face as he stared at her, neon lights from the few open stores and dives too stark against her pale skin, and it looked to be getting paler by the second.

“Not right,” she said in a small voice. “Not right, not good,” she repeated, muttering and mumbling as if she were about to pitch a fit.

Jayne was equal parts aggravated and saddened by what he presumed to be happening. River hadn’t lost it for days now, not once since they left the house she had always called her home, at least not in a big way. Nightmares never went away and a couple of times he’d had to calm her down or break her out of a dream gone bad, but she hadn’t had one of her major episodes, not for a week or more now.

As River turned her eyes skywards, Jayne realised what might have set her off. One large drop of rain landed unceremoniously on his forehead as he followed her lead and looked up a moment. Out of nowhere came a crash of thunder loud enough to wake the dead, as the clouds that had been threatening all day cracked open and poured their cold liquid contents all over.

“Ain’t that just shiny?” muttered Jayne as he tugged on River’s hand. “C’mon, little woman, time to move your pigu,” he told her in no uncertain terms.

Still, she did not move an inch, her bodyguard in two minds whether or not to just pick her up and carry her already. Hell, it wouldn’t be the first time and the pair of them soaked to the skin weren’t gonna help anybody, that was for gorram sure. It was then he felt something prickle at the back of his neck, that unpleasant and familiar feeling of being watched, stalked, prayed upon. River’s eyes dropped from their heavenward place and met his own, dark as the night sky in her face.

In one fluid movement, Jayne spun around, his gun already pulled from its holster, but useless as a fist flew across his face, making his stumble more from the surprise than the force. One man turned into four that would come for him, Jayne realised, as he caught himself without ever actually falling. Fists and feet flew by, blades that flashed pink and blue amongst the flashing neon lights of the last remaining stores that still opened in this God-forsaken place.

River was afraid, petrified, blinded by rain and glad to be so, as she covered her face with her hands and dived for some kind of cover. She half watched, half hid from the violence as Jayne got the upper hand and lost it again just as fast. His gun had been taken from him, his feet knocked clean out from beneath his form more than once. He was a worthy warrior, her bodyguard and saviour, but he was so tired, the conditions so bad, and the attack so unexpected. It seemed impossible for him to win alone.

Curse words flew back and forth, threats and obscenities the like of which River would say she had never heard, but it was not so. It was familiar, strangely so, frighteningly so. The smack of flesh on flesh, the crack of bone, the smell of blood and dirt that floated on the rain that pounded, pounded, pounded on her skin.

At first she thought she had forgotten to breathe, before River realised she was actually getting more air than she expected. She was on her feet again, side on to the fight to which she slowly turned her face. Lightning cracked overhead, lighting her in an eerie glow as she peered out from behind her hair.

She flew.

To Jayne, there was nothing but flashes of dark hair and pale limbs before him, over him, taking out his adversaries for him, one and then another. The sound of her soaked blue dress slapping against her legs was a rhythm to work to, her moves and strikes inspiration to pull himself together. Jayne fought through blurred vision and more than a little confusion, back to back with the woman he had sworn to protect.

Within minutes the battle was done, two unconscious men before her, two dead men at his feet. They spun to each other, out of breath and adrenaline pumping, close and fierce enough to kill... or kiss?

Ask him to explain and Jayne would tell you not ask, because he simply had no real explanation. Action took over from words, thoughts, any logical thing there had ever been here, as he grabbed a hold of River and pulled her slender form against his chest, crashing his lips to hers. He kissed her as if he were drowning and holding onto her was his only hope to survive. Perhaps he should have been shocked that she responded with as much passion as he felt but after what she had just done here, the fighting to near-death, nothing could surprise him now.

For the two of them, the world stopped, the rain ceased to make a sound though it continued to soak them through. All they knew was the thrill of the fight and the moment, the gorram relief of getting someplace after so long of holding back. Seemed River was keeping more than her passion hidden away if her fighting skills was anything to go by, but right now Jayne hadn’t even a mind to ask as he picked her up off the ground, her dancers legs wrapping tight around his waist.

A shout went up in the distance, barely heard until a gun shot followed its sound. Here was neither the time nor place for what this couple clearly had in mind. Amongst the wreckage of broken bodies, in a downpour fit to drown them both, to find romance or even desire was ridiculous.

“They must fly before they fall,” she said, pulling away so suddenly Jayne almost pitched over trying to follow her movement.

She was on her feet again now, eyes training in on whoever was coming for them next. Could be friends of those they had maimed and killed, or whatever passed for a lawman around these parts. Even the last lone do-gooding neighbour or some such come to settle things after the brawl he just heard.

“Let’s get us outta here,” Jayne agreed easily, grabbing for River’s hand and taking off at a run that she easily kept up with.

They took the back streets and alleys, around in almost a complete circle to lose whoever might follow. River hadn’t an idea where they were, until the sound of the doorman from the boarding house could be heard at a distance. He was demanding payment from the next who would stay at the premises, making threats that if the poor man did not leave he would see to it no coin was the least of his worries.

River was not phased by the brute, nor thinking of anything but her Jayne and how he made her feel. She didn’t wonder on what happened back there, when she launched into a fight and dispatched her man’s enemies with ease. Instead, she allowed her senses to be overwhelmed as she had longed to for a while now. She wanted Jayne, had wanted him in some form or other since the first day they met and he saved her from another. Now she had, in some small way, returned that favour, and he loved her enough to kiss her and more.

“Think we lost whoever that was,” he said as he peered out of the back alley, keeping her behind him with one hand.

The merest touch on her skin set River on fire once again, and she would not be pushed away any longer. She had a taste of what she could feel, what she could be, and she wanted more. Her life was not her own until the day she and Jayne took flight from Osiris, and now she would have it as she chose, on her terms, of that she was determined.

Just the moment Jayne turned to look at her, his arms were filled with her body, her lips on his, the passion reignited between them. It had been too long, waiting and wondering and telling himself it was wrong. Gorramit, didn’t feel wrong when she was on him like this. ‘Sides, she was the one throwing herself all over him, not the other way around, least not for the most part, and it weren’t as if she couldn’t push him off just as easy as anything, she proved that back there in the street with those hwun-dahns that came at ‘em from nowhere.

‘Course pinned up against the wall of a boarding house weren’t no way to be, not when a bed existed indoors. Even Jayne had a mind to think this weren’t exactly how a young woman’s first time oughta happen, but she was fogging his mind up something fierce and Hell only knew how she come to kiss so good when she were so young and naive.

“Perfect gift,” she gasped against his lips. “All she wants.”

“What’s that now?” he asked, whilst he still had bearings enough to do so. “There’s gifts?” he checked, not sure what she meant but certain she was some kind of favour sent to him, though from Heaven or Hell he never had quite figured on.

Making a point to pull away enough to meet his eyes, River smiled that same smile that bewitched him from the beginning.

“Today marks eighteen cycles since her birth,” she told him breathlessly, pushing rain-soaked hair from her face as she almost laughed at the irony, “but age does not make her woman.” She shook her head. “He shall.”

Even Jayne weren’t so dumb as to not understand she was asking for exactly what he wanted to give her. Hell, she wanted this for a birthday gift, he weren’t in no mind at all to argue. Eased his conscience some to know she was at least this age, though he had long since come to realise she was well beyond her actual years in mind and heart. His Ma called such folk ‘old souls’, as if they’d been alive long before their time in the ‘verse ever actually came to be. ‘Course now was not a time when Jayne was much thinking on his Ma, and rightly so, as he picked his little woman up off her feet and carried her into the boarding house they would call home tonight.

River smiled wide as she held on tight to the only man she could ever love like this. He would not give her such words, not now, perhaps not for a very long time to come. There was no doubt in her mind, however, that he would give her everything else tonight, all she had wanted and craved before she even realised it herself. Tonight she was a woman, and Jayne was her man. What the morning light brought was nothing to consider, until their union was complete.


	17. Chapter 17

River Tam had never felt like this before. So many conflicting feelings and thoughts ought to be disorientating, but above all she was calm, so very at peace with herself and her situation. A girl on the run from the government, her family, more people than she was even truly aware of, she ought to be afraid, but she was not. A young woman who had just had her first sexual experience might be in some pain, somewhat overwhelmed on top of that, but she was not.

River wasn’t sure why, but instead of any of the things she might have expected to be feeling or experiencing, instead she was just comfortable, warm, sedate. Her skin hummed still from the touches of her lover, her lips bruised, the passion that had stirred within her so long finally sated. Beside her, her slumbering protector, her beloved bodyguard, the man that made her whole and complete.

Jayne was twice her age, she knew, and what people in her own social circle would call ‘from the wrong side of the ‘verse,' but she did not care. She saw no signs of incompatibility between them. They fit together perfectly, like the ying and the yang, in all the ways that mattered. He was not afraid of her moments in madness, never cared that she spoke strangely, acted oddly. When he was close by, she had nothing to fear, and though he was rough and loud and coarse at times, she trusted in him to be gentle and careful when he had to be.

Tonight he had been everything she wanted and needed, brought her to the brink of a cliff called ecstasy and caught her effortlessly when she let herself fall head over heels into the warm enveloping black beyond. Now he slept, and she watched him, breathing evenly, an arm thrown across her own waist.

A smile played at River’s lips that was rarely seen and even less often genuine as it was right now. In a rundown boarding house on the wrong side of the ‘verse, she had found contentment and peace. She understood how ridiculous that seemed, and yet could not care at all. From here on out, she had nothing to fear. Yes, the demons would chase her still, inside her mind as well as by foot and ship and all, but now she had no fear of them, not a shred of doubt that she couldn’t make it through. Her Jayne man would be by her side as she would remain by his, and together they would make it, as she always knew they would.

Stirring beside her, her lover thought better of waking too quickly just the moment he opened his eyes and saw her lying there. For a while when he first came out of slumber, Jayne had considered last night to be some kind of erotic dream. Hell, he’d had a few in his time and after so long without getting any he was sure his sub-conscious was just giving him a taste of what he was missing. All thoughts of that kind disappeared into the distance when he noted the very naked presence of River beside him. They really had got into that fight in the street that he remembered, come rushing back here in the pouring rain, and had one hell of a night here in this bed.

Left and right, Jayne realised he was breaking rules for her. He never kissed on the mouth, never mixed business with pleasure if he could help it, never kept women around for more than one night. She was different, on all counts, his little woman.

“Mornin’,” he muttered, almost fearing what came next.

No doubt she thought now they’d known each other they was gonna get spliced and live happily ever after or some such other fei-oo that womenfolk thought. Jayne weren’t no starry-eyed romantic girl, he knew the ‘verse and the way it worked. He knew sex was just exactly what it was and nothin’ else. ‘Course it’d be easier to convince her of that if’n he actually meant it his ownself. The fact he broke so many rules for her, the fact he took her the way he had last night, mindful of her being naïve and all, he wouldn’ta headed down this path in the gorram first place if he didn’t care at all. Jao gao, he was screwed.

“Good morning, man called Jayne,” she replied with a smile that made him wonder how much of her thoughts were actually his own, read clean out of his brain. “A good day it certainly is, and a man he has most certainly proved to be, as he made her woman.” She giggled, colouring slightly even after all they had done as she leant in close to kiss his lips.

It served to remind Jayne of the practicalities of all this at least. Whilst she weren’t talking love and marriage, he was happy to ignore anything of the kind and focus on what mattered more. Of all things, he never wanted to see her hurt in any kind of a way, and last night he knew he was the one bringin’ her pain for a while at least. Couldn’t be helped, her bein’ all pure and everything, never havin’ known a fella before. Still, he hadn’t the power to stop himself once he started and if her breathless begging and pleading was anything to go by, she weren’t ever gonna ask anyhow.

“You okay?” he asked, thinking it was polite and proper to do so.

Nothin’ they did last night had seemed like either of them things, but she wanted it as much as him, and with all the damn adrenaline and all runnin’ around inside ‘em, no doubts trickled into their minds long enough to make ‘em stop for any better reasons.

“Warm and content,” said River with a sigh. “Happiest in a long time.” She smiled until she looked his way, reading his expression just exactly right, she noted, as the waves of smugness radiated into her own mind from his own. “His pride is not becoming,” she snapped then, and Jayne forced himself to be serious.

Like a fella weren’t supposed to be proud of the fact he gave a woman the best sex of her life. Sure’n River had no particular frame of reference since her first lover was her only, but that didn’t mean Jayne couldn’t take the compliment anyhow. Changing the subject still seemed like a good idea to him, at least it did until he actually tried it.

“Never did explain that fancy mind reading trick o’ yours,” he pointed out, “and that fighting thing last night, where in the ruttin’ hell did that come from?”

River looked pained then, worse than when he popped her cherry last night even. May as well have shot her in the chest from the look on her face, all wide-eyed, quivering lip and everything. She sat up fast, clutching the covers to her chest, mostly uncovering Jayne in the process. He barely noticed the lack of blanket, only that the warmth of her body beside his was missing.

Weren’t as if he meant to hurt her or nothin’, just he wanted to know what the ruttin’ hell was going on with her. The mind reading thing, he’d gotten used to it, and didn’t let it bother him much. Somehow he trusted she weren’t ever gonna use it on him for nothin’ bad, and it weren’t exactly like a person could stop thinking altogether, not even Jayne who weren’t altogether known for using his brain all that much. This whole fighting thing, that was new. All kinds o’ useful on the night in question, but damn confusing still.

“She can’t be right,” said River then, shaking her head as Jayne stared at her bare back that faced him. “Can’t quantify things, can’t be whole and proper.”

Her voice wavered and Jayne had an awful notion she was gonna start cryin’ all over him. Womenfolk shouldn’t have no reason for spilling salt water all over the place, and this little woman in particular he couldn’t stand to have tearful.

“Hey,” he said, reaching for her arm and pulling her to face him again. “Ain’t lookin’ for proper and right,” he told her gruffly, wiping tears he couldn’t stand off her cheek as gentle as he knew how. “You think any right and proper type o’ woman’d come within a mile of a fella like me?” he asked her, serious as the day was long.

She stared down at him then, big brown eyes glassy with unshed tears, lookin’ in such a way as to see through the soul even Jayne weren’t so sure he had anymore. What she was either seeing in there or looking for, he hadn’t an idea, but he let her look just as long as she wanted. She had words enough to say, always gorram did, and they’d come when she got ‘em all unscrambled. For once, Jayne was proved right a minute or so later.

“She can make sense if he can,” she said shakily and with a delicate sniff. “If... if you can care for her, for me, with all faults and damages,” she went on, fighting to use the right words, to not let herself detach from a situation she somehow knew was far more important than anything else she had ever been a part of. “If you can, then she... I can too,” she winced at the sound of her own words, but was smiling again when she realised he had noticed.

Jayne weren’t right sure what it meant, why suddenly she was making herself use ‘I’ and ‘you’ where ‘her’ and ‘him’ had worked so long. He hadn’t the brain she had, the intelligence to figure on what folks meant by these things, least of all a genius like her. Still, he knew it meant somethin’, that it was important to her, and that made it important to him.

It couldn’t make sense, not the gifts or abilities she had, not how he’d come to care so much about the crazy-ass little woman who ought to be nothin’ but a way to make enough coin to live by. Everything had changed so much, she had and so had he at the same time. Gorramit if they weren’t in the biggest mess o’ either of their lives right now, yet at the same time Jayne hadn’t a want left to get outta such a state.

“Y’know, I ain’t no Prince Charmin’ type, bao bei,” he told her, dropping down onto his back and staring at he ceiling then. “Old enough to be your daddy, dumb enough to think runnin’ off with you was a good ol’ plan,” he said as ran a hand over his face and scratched at his bearded chin. “Ain’t got a chance in the gorram ‘verse o’ understandin’ what you’re talkin’ on a not small part of the time-”

“He regrets it all,” River interrupted panic in her features as she came into view, looming over him, her hair falling in his face.

“That’s the ruttin’ dumbest part o’ this whole thing, little woman,” he told her, with a shake of his head. “Can’t say as I do that,” he admitted.

That seemed to be enough for River as she kissed him long and hard on the mouth.

“Doesn’t need a prince,” she told him sweetly. “Not princess anymore. Not daughter, nor dancer, or genius even,” she explained. “Just River, just Jayne’s own.”

“Well, you sure as hell ain’t just a job no more,” he agreed, perhaps the least romantic thing he could’ve said, but River didn’t care.

She laughed lightly at the strangeness of the sentiment, realising she had said so many things that must sound much more odd to his ears. Still he was here, caring for her, wanting her, risking everything. She did not need literal words of love, she saw it in every look, felt it in every touch and kiss as she eased her body down on top of his and lost herself once more in feelings that lapped over her like waves on the shore.

In this dingy room, two floors up in a building that was barely habitable, on a backwater moon nobody would come to by choice, River felt like she had flown as far as angels ever could and seen the outer limits of Heaven. It was not the location she cared about, and the situation she found herself in, running for her life with a head full of secrets she barely knew herself, that all meant nothing. All she was really clear on was that she needed to be here, with Jayne, for that was the only place she knew she would ever truly belong. In his arms she found sanctuary, in his kiss she felt love, and as they came together once again, the rest of ‘verse no longer mattered, and never would in quite the same way again.


	18. Chapter 18

Simon wasn’t sure what to expect when he called home at last. It was almost a week since he got that message from Jayne and a good four days before that when said message had been left. Perhaps he might have made more of an effort if he had fully understood what was happening, but poor Dr Tam was still living with the naivity that nothing could really go wrong with River when she was safe in the Tam house. As much as his parents could be somewhat callous about the feelings of his precious mei mei, he was sure they would not try to send her back to the Academy whilst he was gone. He also trusted that, in the safety of the house more than anywhere else, those that would come to take River away would never be allowed to do so. He trusted in Jayne to take care of her, to do the job he was not only paid to do but trusted to fulfil to the very best of his ability.

Perhaps this was why Simon was so surprised when he called his home and was met by the angry and distraught tones of his mother, asking him to explain where River was.

“I don’t understand,” he told her honestly. “Why isn’t River there? And I thought you and father were away?”

“We had to come home, and you know why,” she cried into her handkercheif. “You must know that River is gone, been taken by that monster of a bodyguard you hired for her.”

Simon’s eyes were wide as saucers at what he was hearing. Yes, he had hired Jayne not knowing exactly what kind of man he was, but the fact he had left so many calls and messages for Simon did not ring true with his being a kidnapper.

“This doesn’t make sense,” he insisted to his mother, who only let out a humourless laugh in response. “But it doesn’t.”

“We should never have left her alone with that... that ri shao gou shi bing,” Regan declared, language that she would never usually stand to hear nevermind use escaping her lips in that moment. “He’s taken my baby away.”

“Really, mother? Taken your baby?” said Simon sharply, looking less than impressed on the screen. “The same baby you put into a school that permanently scarred her mind?” he accused. “And you were talking about sending her back!”

“That is enough!” came the booming voice of Gabriel Tam as he appeared at his wife’s shoulder. “You will speak reasonably to your mother,” he insisted.

Simon bit back a retort then, knowing it would do no good. Right now the focus had to be River, where she had gone and if she was okay. He still couldn’t quite believe she had been kidnapped by Jayne, but then running away without even telling him, her dear guh-guh, it seemed equally as unlikely.

“Son, if you know where your sister has gone, please, I’m begging you to tell me,” his father said, looking and sounding surprisingly genuine.

Simon didn’t doubt for a moment that his parents were serious about wanting to track down River. What he was less certain of was their real reason for it.

“I’m afraid I have no idea,” he told them honestly, easy enough to do since it was the truth. “How long has she been gone? Why wasn’t I told sooner?” he wanted to know both answers and in no particular order.

“We were informed by security three days ago and came straight home,” Gabriel explained, his hands on his wife’s shoulders as she continued to sniffle and sob. “Apparently it took several days to reach us... She’s been gone almost ten days already.”

Simon looked understandably pained at the realisation his sister really could be just about anywhere by now. He had assumed that he would be the one she turned to in a crisis, in a situation so bad she felt the need to run in such a way. Of course, he had not been there to lean on. His only hope now was that Jayne Cobb was a man of his word and had taken no advantage of River in all this. He hoped rather than believed it was true.

“I have to go and pack my bags,” he said, not even bothering to look back up at the screen for a long moment. “I’m coming home,” he insisted.

“Simon.” His mother was ready to argue and he knew it, and Simon couldn’t help but wonder why.

Yes, his career mattered, of course it did, but River mattered infinitely more. He would not stand idly by whilst his mei mei was out in the ‘verse, God only knew where in God knew what conditions. He had to be at home, he had to be actively trying to help with finding her and ensuring she was okay. Still, somehow Simon knew that wherever his baby sister had gone, she had to be safer than at home. There was no way in hell she would have let herself be taken away otherwise.

* * *

Running away from home was something only children did, so River had thought. It was proven true since she had made her escape as a mere youngling herself, a naive little girl who was almost as afraid of what she might find out in the black as the demons that lived in her home and in her head. She trusted only in the fact that Jayne would see no harm come to her.

Now things were different. In the space of little more than two weeks, everything was infinitely changed, and all for the better as far as River Tam could tell. Finally, she was a woman and in some ways at least, she was free. Though her mind remained too crowded, too full of things she was yet to understand, the darkness from within her frightened her less, knowing that he who loved her did so in spite of it.

The Man called Jayne, her protector, friend, and lover, he saw what was within River, the dark swirling mass of pain and anguish and pure terror, he saw it but he was not afraid. River wondered at him being afraid of anything made my man or God, though she had worried he could not love her as she wished when she was so broken. She knew Simon saw beyond her damage and loved her still, but for a man like Jayne to love her in the way he did, it was incredible to her.

River was a genius, and though naive was not such a dope as to believe that a sexual encounter automatically meant love. She understood the physicalities of sex, she knew it was a release for so many, a source of procreation for those to be held together by wedlock. Still, she knew that she was not just a doll for Jayne to play with, a body to be used. For one so rough and harsh in his manner to others, he could be so very gentle and kind to her, mindful of her fragile body and ever more fragile mind and feelings. When such a man behaved in such a way to a woman like her, River knew that meant more, that the physical relationship they shared meant that much more. He loved her, though Jayne had never spoken such words, River knew it implicity, in every fibre of her being. She knew it as well as she knew she loved him too, with all she had and all the good she could ever be.

They did not speak of these feelings, neither really knew how. Perhaps she had not been entirely starved of affection, but her parents were more for spending money than time with their baby daughter. They thought they knew best for her but never asked. Only Simon had truly loved her, and she had scarcely felt able to tell him how she cared for him too. He was their parents favourite so long, he had love and attention enough from them. Poor Jayne, though his parents and sisters loved him one and all, he had not been told often how dear he was and did not know how to express for himself.

Jayne Cobb was built for fighting, for action, for hard work. This latter thing he had found here on their latest planet stop. They had money enough from River’s accounts to last a good while, but Jayne had advised it wouldn’t take long for it to disappear. They must make further coin on their way, and he weren’t adverse to gettin’ his hands dirty in more ways than one. River was willing to bet he was steering clear of any major crimes, if only for her sake. Not because he loved her too much to be so bad, but more so that if the law came calling about some lesser crime, a kidnapping charge could be the next thing he faced, as River was taken away from him forever.

She had talked of working too, but he would not hear of it, at least not yet. Dearest Jayne, always her protector above everything else. His little woman was told she must stay put in their dingy motel room until he came home. It was with very mixed feelings that she received him home battered and bruised, glad to have avoided what befell him but wishing so very much she might have been there to help prevent it.

“He suffers too much in her name,” she lamented as she helped him onto the bed and surveyed his wounds, a myriad of bruises already forming, and cuts that trailed streams of red down his clothes.

“Don’t be gettin’ so full of yourself there, girly,” he warned her, working is jaw to check it weren’t broke, rolling his shoulder and flinching at the crack it made going back into place. “Weren’t no law men nor government folks the like o’ which’d be after you,” he assured her. “Just some fellas that thought I was taking their job is all,” he explained.

“Wouldn’t be here if not for her, still her fault,” she insisted, rambling on softly almost more to herself than to him as she helped him out of his jacket and then his shirt, near in tears by now at the sight of his injuries.

“You quit your yammerin’ and you quit it now!” said Jayne sternly as he turned himself around and faced her, his hands at her arms until it was clear she would not meet his eyes.

“Here,” he said, lifting her chin with one hand and making her look. “Ain’t nothin’ I can’t handle,” he promised her. “Ain’t nothin’ I ain’t lived through a dozen or more times before... most like afore you was even big enough to run that pretty mouth o’ yours,” he told her with a smirk that made her grin her ownself.

River did hate so much that it was her messy life that had caused Jayne’s to be so muddled and painful, and yet from all that he had told her his journey through the ‘verse had been nothing less before he ever came across her. At least now they had each other to depend upon, that was something for him, and everything for her.

“Truth of it is, bao bei, we gotta get us outta here,” said Jayne as he moved to pull off his boots whilst she rifled through her bags for anything she might use to help clean him up and bandage his wounds. “Sure’n runnin’ in circles confuses them hwun-dahns might be after us, but we still too close to the Core to be safe. Gotta get us further out.”

“She understands.” River nodded in agreement as she came to kneel before him and tend his injuries as best she could. “She will go wherever Jayne goes, she is not afraid,” she told him, though the very fact she’d felt the need to say it suggested it was untrue.

“Ain’t gonna be easy, little woman. These places ain’t so bad as it could get yet,” he told her with a sigh, and then a hiss as she pressed against a nasty gouge of a wound on his arm.

“She is not made of glass, she will not break,” said River easily as she continued her work. “With Jayne to watch over her, there is nothing she cannot do. She will live by her wits and all the strength she can find, as he always has.” She smiled.

Jayne would’ve argued some more but there was no point and he knew it. Somehow she was findin’ the strength for all of this, not just the physical strength to fight like that one time when he needed her, but inside of her where it really counted. In her eyes there was a fire rarely seen in such a woman as her. She was born and raised like a princess or some such, built for sipping tea and arranging parties, not to fight and shoot and run around the ‘verse, least of all out on the rim where they were headed. Still, she was ready, prepared to face whatever come her way, and it was all gonna come, he was sure of that.

“Ain’t ever gonna have the fancy life you had before, bao bei,” he told her. “Big house and all-”

“Her house was dark, unwelcome, a prison,” she rattled out without even looking up as she tied off the bandage she had been wrapping around her lover’s arm. “Home is different, home is wherever Jayne is.” She smiled up at him then, bright as any sun in the ‘verse could ever shine. “She is warm and happy here,” she promised.

Right now, Jayne couldn’t imagine ever wanting to hear her say anything else.

* * *

Simon could barely look at his parents when he returned to his home. It was two weeks since his sister had disappeared, along with her bodyguard. All thoughts of innocence were long gone, as everyone suspected Jayne Cobb of kidnapping and worse. The young Dr Tam knew better. If River had left this house it would have been her choice, he was certain of it now. He couldn’t exactly explain how he knew, he just did. Had she felt at all threatened by her protector she would have made it clear, had she been taken in a struggle there would have been evidence. No, Simon could not think Jayne to be the evil mastermind that everyone else would have him be. If nothing else, why would he have been leaving messages at the hospital so many times if his master plan was to kidnap River? It made no sense at all.

If his mei mei left this house of her own accord, she must’ve been desperate. Things had to have got so bad she just didn’t feel safe to stay here any longer. Simon went almost immediately upstairs to his sister’s room and searched through River’s things. A smile came to his lips and grew ever wider as he checked the closet and the drawers by the bed. Rivers most treasured items were gone, which further proved that she left here by choice. There would be no need for Jayne to take such things, they had no value but to the owner.

The last place to look was under the mattress of his sister’s bed. Simon knew she kept her secrets there, her diary and such. She did not trust even the very best of security systems to keep her journal digitally, and would only write long hand in a book, as was the old fashioned way. It was gone, as expected, and yet his hand did not come out empty. An envelope that bore his name had been hidden there, making Simon both happy and angry at the same time.

So much for his loving, caring, worried parents. Surely River’s room should have been the first place checked for clues of what happened to her, and yet nobody had even looked in here, he was sure. A cursory glance at best had been taken, else this letter would have been found days or even weeks ago.

Sitting down on the wide window sill, Simon opened up his letter and laughed aloud as he read the messages written there. None of it would make any sense to anyone else, not even to his parents or dear Nancy who ought to be trustworthy. This was the code in which he and River had conversed at various times since the ages of five and ten. Talk of a ball held by the non-existent Darbanville family, a cat named Fluffy that nobody ever owned, and various other nonsensical things and people that would mean nothing to anyone but the two of them.

River had run because she felt the need to. Jayne was not to blame, in fact, he was most definitely her saviour in this. They would be safe, but far away before her guh-guh ever read the letter, he knew that. Now came the big decisions - how much did Simon tell his parents or the authorities about River’s escape? More than that, what should his next move be in his attempts to continue in ensuring her safety?


	19. Chapter 19

River watched Jayne pack bags, a hundred ideas and plans running through his head.

Nobody would guess a supposed ape-man like him was capable of such thought, but his lover knew better. It was true that she would always be the genius in this pairing, she had the education and natural talent in almost all things where Jayne did not, but he was not as dumb as he let people think. It was easier for him to be underestimated, she knew, but this time she feared he had it all wrong.

“He said he wanted to fly to the outer limits,” she reminded him in her own specially coded way that she said everything as she sat in the middle of the bed they had been sharing and watched him put their meagre belongings together in a pile, taking stock of any food and ammo they had. “His plans tend in the wrong direction, back to the centre of chaos,” she said, a little fear creeping into her tone as she hugged her legs tight to her body, fingers fidgeting without her entirely noticing it seemed.

“Gots me a plan, little woman,” he told her, though it took a moment before his gaze shifted to meet hers and he realised just how nervous she looked suddenly. “Ain’t nothin’ for you to worry your pretty little head about, dong ma?” he told her firmly as he literally dropped what he was doing and came to sit on the edge of the bed beside her. “Trust ol’ Jayne, don’tcha?” he checked, putting a hand to her hair, glad for the smile that broke out across her face then.

“Naturally,” she told him with a peaceful sigh, her eyes falling shut as she drank in the warm calm she only felt when he was this close, touching her, kissing her.

Perhaps if they had time, she might have explored her feelings some more in this way, but Jayne-man was right, they had to go. These places, none of them were safe. For the rest of her life River was sure nowhere would be completely fool-proof in keeping her out of danger. Jayne’s life had tended that way for years, he had told her, and so it was no burden to him to be on the run from folks. She must learn to be as strong, and it would take time, but with her man by her side River felt she could survive anything that came from outside or within. 

Within the hour they had a plan and were ready to leave. Jayne carried the two heaviest bags and River the lighter load. He was always armed, at least one gun strapped to his body no matter where they went. When travelling any distance, there were at least two of three, his lover knew, and up to a few days ago he wore a knife in a sheath strapped to his leg as well. This had changed when he came to realise that River needed her own source of safety other than himself.

The little woman didn’t go out alone, Jayne wouldn’t hear of it, but the thought occurred if something should happen while she was waiting in whatever room they was boarding in, if he couldn’t get home to her and trouble started, she needed some kind of protection. They talked about a gun, but that she could not stand. River was interested enough in the workings of weaponry, in the science and mechanics and such. She could listen for hours as Jayne waxed lyrical on each gun he owned and those he had before. The fights he’d been in and battles won made her smile proudly at her man’s expertise and such. Then he talked of her using a gun of her own and she gorram near lost control.

Jayne had been fearful for her mind in that moment, just as he had back at the house when she lost it more’n once and fell into the fury of one of her fits. She cried and bawled until he could get through to her, promise her she never did have to shoot a gun if’n she couldn’t or didn’t want. She rambled a lot, mostly stuff he couldn’t make no sense of, but all the fight went out of her pretty quick. Once and again Jayne contemplated them drugs he put into his bag the day they bolted from the Tam house and shuddered at the idea of them.

There was no fear inside of Jayne when it came to River’s fits. It never bothered him none that she might start attacking him, ‘cause she never had yet. A couple of scratches and all when she was in one of her crazy ass moments, but nothing showed she meant to do damage to him at all. ‘Course he was the lucky one, she loved and trusted Jayne, any other man wouldn’t be so fortunate, and she’d proved it too.

One night, her protector had been late coming home, and in a moments dumbass madness she opened the gorram door of their room. The fella in charge of the place came wandering in, trying to put the moves on the girl. She wanted no kindness from him, nor nothing else, so she told him, but he didn’t wanna listen. Hwun-dahns like him, full of gut-rot whiskey and dirty ideas, they didn’t much like taking no for an answer.

When Jayne finally got home, he come in careful, gun in hand, when he realised the door weren’t bolted no more. Got the shock of his life when he looked into that room and saw the motionless body of a man at his feet. Poor River was so far back in the corner of the room, Jayne wondered how she hadn’t disappeared into the wall altogether. Her knees pulled up into her chest, she weren’t crying nor nothin’, not no more, but her big brown eyes never left the figure of that fallen man, til Jayne promised her he weren’t dead.

She musta known it. Gorram little woman knew everything, so it seemed to her lover and protector, but she bothered herself a whole lot more than she could ever scare him. Jayne threw out the trash and came back to tell River it was all right. In her own time she told him what happened. That was the night he made her a present of his own special knife over the gun she could not stand to handle.

River had the blade strapped to her body, concealed by her clothes, whenever they went out or if she was left alone in their room. Jayne felt better that way, though if he could stay with the girl, have her protected 24/7, he’d do that too. Two people out in the ‘verse alone and one in the state she could get herself in, weren’t the easiest of things. Still, Jayne wouldn’t give up, he cared too much about River for that and without having to tell her so he knew she was all aware of it. It was why he hoped she never had to do too much damage with that knife he’d let her call her own, but he liked knowing she had it all the same.

They began the trudge down to the docks that’d take them off this piece of go-se moon. Though it was a little too close to the Core and River had been right in saying Jayne planned to travel in the wrong direction, he did know what he was doing. The best way out of the ‘verse, as far as they could get, was Persephone. So many ships docked there, looking for trade and passengers both. Could be they might pass for a couple looking to go out to some newly terraformed world and make a new start Jayne knew there was folks more gullible than him even, though he hadn’t an idea what the word for it was!

River couldn’t help but think that for fugitives they didn’t have such a bad life. She had the man of her dreams though she had not known it until he arrived in her life just a few short months ago. He was not Prince Charming or a White Knight, but he was exactly what she needed. She thought nothing of their age difference or vastly differing backgrounds, she saw only two happy people and a future she could love almost as much as she loved her man. They had not spoken such words, she understood that it was part of the male psyche to shy away from such things and all talk of feelings. She felt the need to keep quiet herself for fear of ruining everything, but in Jayne’s mind she found comfort. What he didn’t speak of he certainly felt, and she knew for certain he would never forsake her as so many others, including her parents, had done.

Jayne worked so hard to make this ramshackle life in some way better. He still refused to let River work or even help him with any task he undertook. It was not because he didn’t trust her strength, but rather than he seemed to realise she still could not trust herself. Fits and mental breaks were few and far between since Jayne came into her life, but River understood that her mind was not yet clear and settled. Too many unanswered questions, too much that could not be quantified, it frightened her to think of it, and even the genius in her could not make sense. Simon had tried so hard to help, between the two of them they failed to find an answer, a cure, a resolution, and this was before her fighting skills had put in an appearance. 

The first time, River had tried to ignore the ability she barely knew she had herself. She put it down to adrenaline and tried to push it out of her head, though it was far from easy. Her brain clouded up with so much and so little would allow her to push it aside. Jayne’s presence helped, but it was not at all fool-proof. River felt she would always need answers, and only hoped one day there might be a safe way for her to get them.

The day she attacked the man that crept into her room was blurry. She recalled being afraid and after that Jayne coming to find her, tear-stained and shaking in the far corner, a body at her feet. Jayne assured her the man she had clearly attacked herself was not actually dead, though she knew he could have been. A few seconds more and she would not have just rendered him unconscious but lost forever. Of all things River could find to fear, it was her own self and the lack of control within that scared her most.

Jayne felt the same, and she knew it. When she lost her grip with him, when she cried and screamed, or rambled incessant nonsense to him, he could deal. He could calm her down and make her see sense, soothe away the panic that rose within her. What worried him most was the same thing that bothered her. If in the state of attack she went too far and killed a man, there was no telling how she would deal with that. River was not born to fight, it had to be something the Academy had done, imbued her with some kind of power, brainwashed her into it. With her feeling things so strongly, so violently, if she was forced to take a persons life, there was no telling how she would cope with the realisation of what she’d done. It took a lot to come to terms with the guilt and all, Jayne knew. Though he was practically immune these days, it had taken years, and he was made for this world, for the work he did, raised to be tough and kill or be killed.

It was fear for River’s mind if she went too far that made Jayne keep the medication he had brought on this trip. Every time they repacked bags to move from place to place, he contemplated throwing it in the trash, or even selling it for the coin such drugs could make. Every time he changed his mind and packed it anyway.

It seemed wrong, poor innocent little woman and he was carrying around tranqs to keep her in line, seemed even more wrong since they got familiar and everything. This last time was the closest he come to tossing the gorram meds, but it wasn’t his judgement or a niggling thought in his head that stop him this time, it was River.

“She understands,” she said softly, her hand at his wrist.

She had crept up on him so quiet-like, he almost jumped when she spoke and touched him, almost.

“Gorram sure I don’t,” he replied, neither of them overly sure what the other meant entirely by their words. “I gotta destroy this,” he said definitely then, gripping the vials in his hand so hard already that they very nearly cracked. “Shoulda done it weeks ago.”

“No.” River shook her head definitely and made herself meet his gaze. “Her safety net as well as his,” she said with tears pricking the corners of her eyes. “If she... if I tried to hurt him or... Must be kept,” she said definitely.

It was clear to him that it was one of the hardest things she ever had to say, and without a thought in his head, he pulled her roughly to him and kissed her hard on the mouth. Things didn’t ought to be so messed up, not for her, she didn’t deserve not a bit of it.

They left under cover of darkness and were half way to the docks by now. Sure’n it was harder to see threats in the dark, but Jayne liked knowing it was harder for anyone who might be spying to see the going of them too. River trusted him to know what he was doing.

At their present speed, they would make the docks before sun up, catch the nearest ship to Persephone, and be on their way to the distant Rim she had heard of but never seen inside a couple of days. Her heart sang with the prospect of a new life with Jayne, though something made her stop walking just at that very moment. 

“C’mon, River, ain’t got no time for your moony fits now,” said Jayne with a roll of his eyes that she barely made out in the gloom.

Her head cocked to one side as if she were listening intently to something Jayne was unaware of, and then she pointed and screamed.

The bags dropped from Jayne’s hands in a second as he pulled his gun and aimed it down the alley where a shadow wavered.

“Get out here and face me like a man, ya yu bun duh...” he stopped short of his planned curse-filled insult when he recognised the face of the man who had just appeared before him. “Ta ma duh!” he swore under his breath. “Simon?”


	20. Chapter 20

“I ain’t sayin’ as ya didn’t make a helluva brave move, doc,” said Jayne, after he hustled both Simon and River out of harms way and into the safety of an abandoned building where no-one should bother them, “but ya gotta be a lot more stupid than I figured to be out here alone like you is.”

Something about his tone suggested he wasn’t so much worried for Simon’s safety as he was pissed he was here at all. Perhaps it seemed to him that River’s brother had come to save the day, get her away from the feh feh pi goh that had taken her away. Jayne could see why the Tam parents and folks that didn’t know better might think that, but he thought maybe he’d get a little trust and understudying from this guy!

“It’s not that I don’t trust you to take care of River, Jayne,” insisted Simon, smiling widely despite the situation as he looked at his sister and marvelled at the sight of her apparent happiness. “I understand what happened. They’re talking about kidnapping, my parents and the law, but I knew that couldn’t be true.” He shook his head. “Not only did I trust in you, but I had evidence to back up what I already thought,” he said, pulling a letter from his pocket that River recognised but made Jayne frown hard. “River had taken certain things along with her, items that would not be worth a kidnappers time to steal, that would only be with River if she took them of her own accord... and then, I found this,” he gestured to the paper in his hand that Jayne soon took himself.

His eyes skimmed the page but struggled with both the fancy handwriting and too many long words. Weren’t exactly as if a man like him needed a lot of schoolin’ and he didn’t attend much. He learned the basics from his Ma and got along just fine, but this letter weren’t his terrirtoy at all, especially since it seemed to be absolute gibberish.

“What in the gorram hell...?” he muttered as he made out as much as he could and floundered over the rest, unable to make sense of anything beyond River’s general sentiment that Simon shouldn’t worry about her.

“Don’t be mad at her,” River urged him as she moved in close to his side, trying to prize his attention from her letter to her face. “Had to leave some evidence, some explanation. Dear guh guh would have panicked,” she insisted as Jayne looked at her with a less than convinced expression.

“This letter is in code, hidden where no-one else would think to look,” Simon explained further as he picked the paper easily from Jayne’s hand now River had him distracted. “To be honest, I’m fairly certain they didn’t even bother to check,” he added sadly.

River looked a little bitter herself as her eyes dipped to the floor.

“Parents are fine actors.” She sighed. “Pretend to care but in truth they have only room for one in their hearts.”

Jayne’s hand on her back was some comfort to River, a lot more than anything else could be, and Simon couldn’t help but notice it. Usually his sister shied away from contact, since the Academy most especially. People touching her made her jumpy, scared of what might happen, he guessed. He would hug her without incident, but even Nancy had to be careful not to startle poor River for fear of the consequences. Jayne seemed to have no fear, which was understandable being the type of man he was, but River’s lack of negative reaction was the real shock, at least until she leaned into her bodyguard a little more.

“You must go home, Simon,” she said then, at least taking his attention from the odd closeness of his mei mei and the man that had helped her escape her own home.

“No.” He shook his head definitely. “No, I don’t have a home on Osiris anymore. I can’t live with those people, after what they’ve done,” he insisted, his morals far superior to his parents at least, Jayne noted with some relief.

He had half wondered if Simon would want to take River back. Sure’n he didn’t much like the way his folks treated the girl, but when it came to crunch time, it was likely he’d prefer her to live in her gilded cage than runnin’ around the ‘verse with the likes of him for the rest of her days. This was perhaps the first time Jayne had really considered just how much of his future he was putting aside for River, the truth was it was all of it if that was what she wanted. The look on her face when she met his eyes then suggested she saw the lights flash on in his head the very same moment.

“Dark future shall yet be lit with heart-shaped lamps.” She smiled sweetly, another signal Simon picked up.

If he didn’t know better he would think that River and Jayne had become much better friends than he’d never imagined before. Letting his mind wander too much caused a kind of panic to rise up in his chest that refused to be swallowed down. More than friends, these gestures and looks suggested it, and he couldn’t make the idea go away.

“River,” he said carefully, mindful of making matters worse, of causing a reaction in her that could not be easily controlled.

“She loves that he worries,” his mei mei replied earnestly. “Loves her Simon dearly,” she confirmed as she looked to him then, “but he cannot belong, should not have come!” she insisted, an edge of the hysterics creeping into her tone.

“Shh, little woman,” Jayne urged her, putting an arm round her shoulders and letting her turn into his chest to be held tight.

The bodyguard wasn’t stupid, though many always made that assumption. A lack of schoolin’ and rough exterior made folks assume Jayne was thick as a ri shao gou shi bing, but that weren’t so. Math, long words, all that genius talk these Tams were so fond of, he couldn’t make head nor tale, but body language he knew, certain looks and tones of voice. He had to be able to tell if he was being played, lied to, used, else never get out of these jobs he took alive. You had to be able to tell if your partner in crime was about to turn a gun on you, drop you out of the plane, double-cross you out of your share of the coin. Right now, the look on Simon’s face told Jayne loud and clear that he knew just what was going on here, and he weren’t too pleased about it.

Jayne’d like to argue about it, call Simon all the names goin’, offer to teach the boy a lesson about lookin’ at folks like him in such a way, but he wouldn’t, and it wasn’t just for River’s sake neither. Fact of it was, Jayne couldn’t much imagine bein’ too happy in Simon’s shoes, if one of his own little sisters was takin’ up with a lunk like him. Hell, he couldn’t imagine bein’ thrilled by Dalphia, Evie, or little Lilly-May finding themselves any man they liked better than himself. Brothers was built to be protectors of their sisters, ‘specially when them girls was younger. ‘Course there still weren’t no way in the ‘verse Jayne was giving up River now, not even if her brother asked real nice.

“You said you got my last message, doc,” he reminded him carefully over River’s head. “And you trust I didn’t take your sister outta her home by any kinda unlawfulness or force.”

“I did, I do,” he confirmed with a nod of his head, though there were no smile nor easy look on his face when he said it.

“Then you know I wouldn’t let nothin’ in the gorram ‘verse bring harm to her,” Jayne continued definitely. “If’n I thought that somethin’ that’d hurt her was my ownself, I wouldn’t be here.”

Simon wanted to argue the point, to yell about how inappropriate this was, how wrong. He wanted to sock Jayne in the mouth for being the unfeeling oaf of a hwun-dahn that took advantage of his sister, his sweet mei mei that was barely but a child. This was wrong, and sickening, and... and every idea and word on the subject died in a second as River turned out of her lover’s embrace and faced her brother with big shining brown eyes.

He knew what had happened. As all those awful thoughts about Jayne ran through his head in the silence, they hit her like a wave fit to drown her. River knew what he was thinking, and without a word spoken she proved it with one single look of defiance to all he would say and do. She was gone, the little girl that he had always seen her as from the day she was born to the day he said goodbye a while and left for Ariel. This wasn’t a baby stood before him now, in a fine party dress, giddy at the thought of a pony to ride or a new market stall to explore. This was a young woman, prepared for whatever life threw at her, no matter how bad that might be. After all she had endured at the Academy, these past weeks running from the law, her family, everyone and everything she’d ever known, Simon didn’t doubt River was capable of just about anything she wanted to do. With Jayne at her side, she believed it and she could do it, she would do it, of that he was certain.

“Stronger than she looks.” She smiled up at him then, even as Simon looked troubled and ran a shaky hand through his hair.

“When did this happen?” he slowly shook his head. “When did you go and grow up on me?” he sighed. “I mean, I left my little baby sister behind and now-”

“Now she is woman,” River confirmed, reaching behind her for Jayne’s hand that he let her take. “And Jayne is her man, her partner, all she needs,” she said definitely, forcing her scrambled mind to find the right words as she spoke seriously to her brother. “Simon, you shouldn’t have come. Dangerous out here, too dangerous-”

“I couldn’t just leave you out here, River,” he told her earnestly, just a little stung to hear that he was no longer the one she relied on now she had Jayne. “Never knowing if you were okay, where you were.”

“Still took a big gorram risk comin’ out here, doc,” the bodyguard told him then. “How the hell you find us anyhow?” he asked with a frown, his eyes darting outside and back, just vaguely wondering if there was a double-cross in play, though he didn’t say a word about it.

“Believe me, it wasn’t easy.” He shook his head. “But there are people that, if paid enough money, will give you the information you want.”

Jayne’s eyes narrowed as he took in what Simon was saying. Sounded a lot like he was talking about people way more underhand than even the bodyguard himself. They didn’t hang around any place fancy folks went to. You had to go to the blackout, a place even Jayne didn’t like to venture his ownself if he was feelin’ anything less than completely prepared. Seemed to him that Simon Tam was equal parts brave and stupid, but there was no doubting he loved his sister.

“Coulda got yourself killed, places you musta been,” he said with no real disdain but almost a kind of admiration in his voice and looks that Simon never expected to see.

“It was worth the risk,” he insisted. “It was worth everything to find River. She’s my sister... You mean the whole world to me,” he promised the young woman herself as he looked at her then.

“He cannot give up everything, she won’t allow,” River began to get upset then. “This life-”

“This life has been chosen for us,” her brother insisted. “If you can live this way, I can too. You say you’re stronger than you look, mei mei, and I believe you, but so am I.”

Jayne had to respect the boy’s moxie if nothing else. Kid wasn’t as pansy-assed as he seemed at first glance, not if he was willin’ to give up everything to run with them, to take on the ‘verse for the sake of his sister.

Jayne could do this alone, protect River and get the two of them where they needed to be, outta harms way. Having Simon tag along, well, he was kinda gettin’ used to it being just him and the little woman, but he knew how much she doted on her brother, just the same as he loved his mei mei. They was closer than the Cobb family ever was, that was for gorram sure, but then they had to be. Their parents was scum, no matter how much coin or fanciful things they owned or did, they was always gonna be the lowest form o’ human life to Jayne. They hurt River, but one thing was for sure, they was the last people in the whole ruttin’ ‘verse who was ever gonna do that.

“You got wits enough about ya,” said Jayne as he looked at Simon then. “Gotta have to have come this far and not be full o’ lead or worse.” 

“I may not be quite the genius River is, but I get by,” said the good doctor with a small smile. “Top four percent of my class.”

“Four percent, huh?” Jayne chuckled. “Yeah, well, that’ll only get so ya so far out where we’re headed, boy,” he told him, all wisdom and a grin that was as scary-ass as it was comforting.

Simon physically jumped as he reacted to an object being thrown in his general direction. He was not overly impressed to find a gun between his hands when he looked down at what he’d caught.

“You know how to use that?” Jayne asked him, straight out as he switched one other such weapon from one holster to the other on his own body.

“I...” he faltered. “I shot the occasional bird on my father’s estate, but-”

“He has good aim,” River cut in, even as she shied away from her brother holding the weapon, no lack of trust in him but a fear for herself and her own capabilities with such a piece. “He’ll learn quickly,” she said with a confident nod of her head.

“He’s gonna have to, bao bei, if'n he’s comin’ with us,” said Jayne definitely, peering out around the battered door of the tumble-down building they was hiding out in.

There was still a chance this was a trap, not Simon’s fault perhaps, but a trap nonetheless. Them bad folks coulda followed the poor Doc out here, or the untrustworthy types he got his info from coulda turned tail and gone runnin’ to the cops the second they got done with the boy. Weren’t no tellin’ what was around each corner before, and that was doubly true now.

“They’re headed for the docks, going to Persephone,” River explained to Simon as her man played look-out. “From there to the edge of the world and beyond.” She smiled widely and brightly, as genuine in her happiness as her brother had ever seen her.

“Okay.” Simon let out a breath and tried to keep focus.

The gun in his hand felt strange and foreign, the world they were headed into so very dark and worthy of the panic attack he could easily allow himself to have right now, but he wouldn’t. No, he would be strong for River, and to prove a point to Jayne. He would head into a brave new world, away from all he knew, because the place he had called home so long no long held any warmth or comfort. His career was over, that did not thrill him, but River was so much more important, and life could be the adventure the two of them dreamed of as children, starting from right here.


	21. Chapter 21

River did not argue with Jayne about their trip to Persephone, because she already knew his reasoning. Getting off this moon had to be done secretly, without show, thanks to the amount of nefarious people that existed in these parts. Sure’n they could catch a shuttle trip a long way out to the Rim from here just as well as at the Eavesdown Docks of Persephone, but the boats that docked there would be better for choice and better for hiding on.

Jayne had experience of these things. He knew most often from the look of folks if he could put a little trust in them or not. He didn’t put a lot of faith in anybody and the longer River lived in the world she more she understood his reasoning. Of course, she had taken a chance on her bodyguard and been proven right, so perhaps her instinct for reading people in that way was as good, if not better than her lover’s own.

“They got all kindsa business folks, in business that don’t want messin’ with the law, at Persephone,” Jayne had explained. “Not that we’re gonna go tellin’ ‘em we’re fuggees or nothin’, but they ain’t so much the type to ask questions and all.”

River nodded her understanding and huddled into his side to rest her head a while. She wanted to be rested and prepared for any trouble that came when they got off this ship at their next stop. If such people as Jayne described were ready and waiting at Persephone, there would be others like them too, runaways and criminals of a much worse type than River or Jayne, and she wanted to be alert. Besides which, whatever the people were like, there would be so very many of them at the docks. The young woman with a mind that read all others of its own accord wanted to have all her strength to keep her head as clear as possible. If she became overwhelmed and caused a scene, well, both Jayne and Simon were here to help now but things could still end badly. Drawing attention to themselves was the very last thing any of them needed.

“We gotta get your brother somethin’ else to wear when we hit Persephone,” Jayne grumbled, and River felt rather than heard it with her head rested on his chest.

“Standing out like a proverbial throbbing thumb.” She giggled as she watched Simon make his way back from the bathroom through the crowds of rough looking folks, all silk shirt and polite excuses. “He does not like another tagging along,” said River then, catching Jayne’s attention as her head came up and she stared at him. “Cannot send guh-guh away now, he will not go,” she insisted, and a tremor of fear in her eyes and tone confirmed what her man already knew.

“Ain’t gonna be sending your brother nowhere, bao bei,” he promised her, his fingers tangled in her hair as he encouraged her to lay back down calmly and get her rest. “Gotta admit, things was a might easier just the two of us gettin’ along, but you want him with us, we take him. Ain’t no trouble to me, so long as he does what he’s told,” he muttered.

“She loves him more for it,” she swore, her words so softly spoken that Jayne almost thought he heard wrong, but never got a chance to check if that was a certain L word he got a hint of as Simon returned to them and sat down.

“You were serious about this being a lot to get used to.” The doctor sighed. “But it could be worse, right?” He shrugged, squirming just a little at the sight of his sister wrapped around her bodyguard.

“You got no idea.” Jayne chuckled, as he kissed the top of River’s head and held her close as she drifted off.

* * *

Captain Malcolm Reynolds shook his head and smiled as he watched his ship’s mechanic charm a local into taking a ride on their boat. Looked like a man of the cloth, which didn’t altogether sit well with Mal, but coin was coin and whatever the preacher man could spare worked for him. Course, just one fare to Beaumonde weren’t gonna cut it, they’d need others. Damned if there was any man or even woman who could resist Kaylee’s smile ‘neath her rainbow umbrella. She’d have the entire ship filled up afore the day was out if Mal gave her the chance to carry on.

Wandering back inside and leaving her to her task, the Captain of the ship named Serenity didn’t see the latest arrivals on Persephone wander into view. They made an odd set that was for sure, the over-sized muscle of Jayne with his arm slung over the shoulders of slim and delicate little River, with Simon walking a pace beside, looking as shifty as anyone ever could.

“Could ya maybe try not to look like the fugee, ya are?” Jayne hissed over his shoulder at the boy who seemed so young and naive compared to his own little sister.

River socked her man in the arm even as she laughed.

“Brother needs time, as she did,” she reminded him. “Will adjust.”

Jayne didn’t look convinced but let it go. Right now there were more important things to worry about than Simon’s fancy clothes and too-good manners. They could most like find an excuse for stuff like that. What they needed now was to find a ship to get outta here on, a boat they could travel on without worrying too much about the law and all. It didn’t much matter where they was goin’, so long as it was far.

“Mine’s the nicest ship you’ll find,” said a little voice so suddenly it almost made even Jayne jump.

“What’s that, girly?” he asked as he spun around with River and Simon following. “You say somethin’?”

“Surely did.” She smiled brightly as she hopped up from her lawn chair, spinning her pretty parasol. “I noticed you looking at the ships. You gotta know what you’re lookin’ at and don’t seem to care much for where your headed, just what kinda boat you get there on.”

“You certainly seem to have a... fine vessel here,” said Simon conversationally, though his actual words were vague at best and most likely a lie.

Jayne doubted a fancy man like his little woman’s brother would know one end of a Firefly (nor any other kind of ship) from the other. Course, that didn’t seem to matter much to the girl tryin’ to sell ‘em all a ride, as she fluttered her eyelashes at the good Doctor and waxed lyrical on the advantages of travelling with her particular crew.

“What d’ya think, bao bei?” asked Jayne as he watched her take in the ship her ownself.

Her eyes studied every detail, her hand reaching out, not quite making contact with the metal. He didn’t know better, Jayne’d bet she was talking to that ship somehow. Hell, the tricks his little woman could pull, maybe that’s just exactly what she was doing!

“Midbulk transport, standard radion-accelerator core, classcode 03-K64, Firefly,” River suddenly rattled off, which might’ve surprised Jayne if he weren’t so used to her ways.

“Now there’s a curious thing,” said another male voice and all looked up to see a man in a brown coat approaching them. “Damn sure even I don’t remember all that, even on a good day.” He smiled at River. “You must know your ships, young lady.”

“Know a great many things, Captain,” she greeted him easily, making Mal wonder just briefly how she would know he was in charge, but then he did have an air about him, he guessed.

“You looking for safe passage to Beaumonde, we got ya covered,” he sold them his best deal. “Not for free, but a reasonable price,” he assured them.

“Won’t get a smoother ride nowhere else,” Kaylee assured them. “Serenity’s the best of her kind.”

“Serenity?” Simon echoed, apparently a little underwhelmed by the name at least. “That’s... vaguely funeric,” he said, with some distaste.

“Ain’t wrong,” Mal agreed, a kind of steel in his eyes that let Jayne know just exactly what he meant.

Battle of Serenity Valley was a turning point in the war. He hadn’t fought himself but he knew somethin’ about how things went down. That valley was hell itself, so they said, and if’n this man in the tell-tale brown coat had been there, well, that meant no trouble with the law if they rode on his boat.

“Name’s Jayne,” he said, holding out a hand to the Captain. “This here is my woman, River, and her brother, Simon,” he introduced them.

“I’m Malcolm Reynolds; this is my mechanic Kaylee,” he replied in kind, accepting all offered hands. “Y’all are welcome aboard my boat if you can pay the fare,” he assured them with ease, mindful of getting off this rock before too much longer.

“They gratefully accept,” River answered for everyone, looking from Mal to Jayne with a wonderful glow in her brown eyes. “Serenity is not freedom from the storm but peace amid it. She has a good feeling.” She smiled.

“Works for me, bao bei.” He nodded his agreement, hefting up their bags from the dusty ground and going aboard the Firefly class ship that’d be home for a while at least.

Alone on the ramp a few moments later, Mal looked to Kaylee as she in turn watched Simon’s rear end disappearing from view.

“Interestin’ bunch,” said the Captain without further explanation. “Got a feelin’ it’s best they don’t stay too long here.”

“Really?” the mechanic answered, with a sudden frown darkening her usually such sunny features. “I kinda hope they’ll hang around a while,” she said, a smile flickering through at the very idea. “I like the look of ‘em, all of ‘em,” she confirmed when Mal gave her that fatherly look she knew too well. “I just think they’d fit in so good here with us.”

“Where you get such notions, little Kaylee, I ain’t ever gonna understand,” the Captain told her, ruffling her hair as he strode by and up inside the ship again. “Get yourself clear now, time to go.”

“All aboard,” said Kaylee with a genuine smile as she swung her folded chair in one hand and her parasol in the other.

The ramp lifted and closed on Persephone, the engines humming into life beneath Serenity. River looked out through the tiny crack above the door until it finally closed shut tight. She smiled then, bright and warm as the glowing engine she knew was firing up and taking her away into the black she would learn to love as her new home. In whispered words that only she knew had been said, she sighed;

“Here we go.”


End file.
